Another underage teacher?
by baka black
Summary: This is a story where another teacher comes by. He's a 16-year-old, juvenile genius with some surprises under his sleeves. I'll most likely have some attacks and characters from other manga making appearances, but I'll mostly focus on Negima!. Enjoy.
1. Another Underage Teacher

***Disclaimer:**

**I do not own Negima or any material shown here. This is my first fanfic. Umm…Oh, Yeah. Any aspects from other anime are either intentional or unintentional but are still the material of their respective owners. Tell me how you all think of it.**

**Chapter 1: What the Hell…?**

Leaning forward on his chair, Gene hastily reread the paper in front of him once again. After receiving his teaching credentials, he had applied to teach at the Mahora Private Academy in Japan. He had fallen asleep during the exam and did not expect to get the job. According to the letter in front of him, he had been surprisingly accepted.

Prepared and ready to go, he felt uneasy about the new job; reaching out for his coffee, he took a huge anxious sip. The moment the black liquid touched his lips, he immediately tasted the tart flavor of the dark roast drink. Horrified and unable to bear the flavor, he spat out the contents on the warm wooden floor.

"Crap," he thought, "I accidentally made coffee instead of tea. And not only that… My room is drenched!"

He looked around at the small apartment room he had stayed in while applying for the job. The apartment was one white-covered room that had the bedroom, kitchen, and living room all in one place; the bathroom was so small that it did not deserve to be called a bathroom.

"Well," he said out loud, "When I start my job, I'll be able to move onto the school grounds. My salary should cover the cost of a room in the dorms."

He then looked in his bag to see if his diary was still there. It was where he had secured it before, in a leather pocket in the front compartment. His eyes then wandered to the clock.

"Oh no," he cried out, "I'm gonna be late!"

He grabbed his bags, stuffed them all into his backpack, which remarkably retained its original shape, and ran out the door.

He panted as he pushed his way into the subway. Gene then double-checked the map the letter had come with. Thankfully, he had gotten onto the subway at the last minute. After catching his breath, he looked around; the train was packed full of girls.

"Wait a minute," thought Gene, "Did I get on the wrong subway."

The intercom then announced the next stop, "Next stop, Mahora Academy. This is the last stop. Repeat, this is the last stop."

All the girls began picking up their belonging and crowded towards the doors. Some became unnervingly close to Gene.

When the doors opened, all the girls began streaming out. Gene struggled to stay up but was knocked down by the torrent of students. When he finally got up, the street was empty.

He then looked around for a map to the principal's office when he was knocked over by someone else. Gene looked up to see a girl with red hair and bells in her hair struggling to get up as well. Her friends were behind her and looking at Gene in a strange way.

"Hey, watch where you're going," the red-haired girl snapped at him. She then heard the bell ring and jumped up.

"Crap, we're going to be late for class now."

She and her friends began running as fast as they could across the campus to a large building at the end of the street. Not knowing where else to go, Gene decided to follow them. When he caught up to the girls, he asked, "Umm, can you tell me where the principal's office is."

"Why don't we just show you?" offered one of the girls, a black haired one with a cheery voice, "That's where we're going too."

After going though a dizzying series of stairs and hallways, they arrived at a door which had "Principal's Office" written in kana. The black haired girl knocked on the door, and a middle-aged man with a noticeable stubble opened the door. "Hello, Asuna, Konoka. The principal has been expecting you."

The red haired girl began fidgeting and began stammering a reply. Gene leaned over and observed her face. "You like him, don't you," he remarked.

His face met a fist, and he flew into a nearby wall.

"Asuna," begged the black haired girl, who was probably Konoka, as she tried to retrain Asuna, "Don't punch him. Takahata-san is watching."

Asuna immediately blushed and began frantically bowing in apology to Takahata. "Sorry, sorry," she cried out.

"Hey, where's my apology," Gene asked as he pulled himself out of a man-shaped hole in the wall.

An elderly voice came from within the room, "Well, youngsters, get in here already. You need to get back to class as soon as possible."

Gene and Asuna stared at each other before entering the room with Konoka and Takahata. The principal's office was a spacious room with filled bookshelves lining the walls and a grand work desk at the center. Gene uneasily looked at the principal who now had the power to determine his future job.

The chair turned around, revealing an old man who had so many wrinkles and white hair that it seemed a miracle that he could see at all.

"Ho, so this is the new teacher right? What's your name?"

"Umm, yes. My name is Albert Genehyuk Gim; please call me Gene. I'm here for the teaching job."

"What?" Asuna cried out, "How can he be a teacher? Don't we already have enough juvenile teachers?"

"Well.." the principal started but was interrupted as the door slammed open, and a red-haired boy who seemed no older than ten entered the room.

"Ah, speak of the devil. Sit down Negi."

"Negi, I like Negi. Chop them up and put them in soup, makes it taste great," said Gene, "Oh, you mean he's called Negi." (Negi in Japanese means spring onion. Look it up online, since you're most likely reading this online. Just make a new tab and go on Wikipedia and look it up. They do go well with soup.)

"Sorry," Gene said and offered his hand to shake Negi's. The boy shook the hand in reply.

"So, as I was saying," the principal began, "Negi, you are a good English teacher but lack the experience and the expertise to teach your students in other areas such as math and science. Therefore, Gene here will be your class's supplemental teacher."

"Ehhh!" said the students at once.

"Don't worry, Gene has already graduated from college and has earned a masters in computer science and mathematics, right?"

"I guess that's correct," Gene stammered out.

"So, no problems then…good. Now, Takahata, Negi, Asuna, Konoka, escort Gene here to the classroom please." The principal turned around; the meeting was over.

"Whew," Gene sighed out in relief after leaving the principal's office, "I thought that would be harder than I thought."

"Don't worry," reassured Takahata, "The principal is an understanding man. He's fair and will usually sympathize with you."

"So is it true that you are already a college graduate?" asked Konoka.

"Yeah. Graduated from MIT."

"REALLY?"

"Yes," added Takahata, "According to his record, he graduated at the top of his class."

"Ohh, so such amazing people do exist," mused Konoka.

Gene blushed; it had been a long time since someone had been interested in him as a person.

"Well, we're here," Asuna announced loudly, interrupting their conversation.

"Wait here," said Takahata, "We'll introduce you to the class."

Asuna, Konoka, and Negi had already gone into the classroom. Takahata soon followed suit. Gene decided to wait until Takahata called for him. At the meantime, he tried to remember how he had gotten to the principal's office and the route to the classroom.

"Come in," Takahata called out from the classroom. Gene stood up and opened the door. Immediately, an eraser dropped from the ceiling and fell towards the ground before stopping inches above Gene's head.

"Oh crap," Gene thought, "This must be the legendary let's-put-an-eraser-full-of-chalk-powder-in-the-crack-on-the-sliding-door-so-that-when-the-unsuspecting-teacher-opens-it-it-will-fall-and-drop-the-powder-on-his-hair. Should I let it drop or swipe it off.

"If I let it drop, it will hit my head, and the students will laugh. However, my head will be full of chalk powder which is not very good for me, isn't it.

"However, if I push it away, it will give the bad impression that I'm a strict and evil teacher to the students. Hmm…To drop or not to drop? That is the question."

After arguing with himself for a few seconds, he decided to let the eraser drop. Gene let out a fake laugh, but the students remained silent.

When Gene took a closer look at the class, he noticed something, "Hey, this class is full of girls!"

"Of course," someone shouted out, "This is an all-girl's private school. Didn't you know that before applying for the job?"

The class burst out into laughter, and Gene felt his face redden.

"Now, now," Negi stammered out, "It's his first day here, so please calm down."

Although his voice sounded pitiful and weak, the class listened and settled down. Gene stepped forward to the middle of the classroom and tripped over a tripwire. He stumbled, fell over into a bucket, and was hit with 5 rubber arrows.

The force of the arrows rolled him over and through the window. He fell down and landed on the floor before rolling onto the middle of the track. Most of the nearby classes heard the glass breaking and were peering out to see what was going on.

"I let my guard down. These Japanese school pranksters are more fearsome than I had imagined," thought Gene as he slipped into unconsciousness, "What the hell was I thinking for applying for a job here."

**Chapter 2: Where do I sleep?**

After he had recovered from his incident, Gene was in the staff room with Negi. Negi was explaining the job of the teachers after school and showed him where his desk was and where Gene's desk would be.

_This reminds me of the time I was doing something similar,_ Gene thought, _I would always show my seniors my ideas, and they would listen to me. I guess I know how they felt now. It's kinda embarrassing._

"Oh yeah," Negi said and gave Gene a folder. Gene opened it up to see the class roster with a picture of each student and their names, clubs, and other activities written under them.

"Since you didn't get a chance to talk with the class, I thought you would need this. I've already memorized it," Negi said, almost with an apologetic voice.

"Thank you," Gene replied and took the roster.

"Tomorrow, let's introduce you to the class properly, alright."

"Yeah, that was a very odd first impression."

They both laughed at the memory of Gene falling through the window thanks to a series of cleverly placed teacher traps. After they had quieted down, Negi looked at Gene and finally spoke in a serious voice, "Gene, you're not normal, are you."

"What was your first clue?" Gene teased, "I'm a teenage graduate; I think that counts as making me not normal."

"That's not what I mean," shouted Negi, "That eraser that fell, you stopped it with a barrier didn't you."

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Why did you apply for a job here if you have such an amazing record?" Negi finally asked after a few seconds.

"I know that someone in my situation would have immediately begun research at some famous place by now. However, I wanted to explore the world a bit and see it as a person."

"What do you mean?"

"You're too young to understand it."

"No I'm not. No I'm not. I'm not that young you know."

Gene bent down and looked at Negi eye-to-eye. He then burst out into laughter, "No matter how I try looking at you, I still see you as a little kid. Sorry though."

However, he had not answered Negi's question. When the child-teacher was about to persist, the principal came in with Asuna and Konoka behind him.

"Ho, so you're showing our new teacher around the school, aren't you, Negi?" he said.

"Yes," Negi replied.

"So, how was your first day?" the principal then turned to Gene.

"Yes sir," he stood up, "Umm…well."

The principal laughed, "No need to be so formal. Okay, I won't ask that from you; I can guess what happened. Don't worry about it though. It takes the students time to accept any new teacher, right Negi."

Negi then turned to Gene, "Yes, it took them a while to get used to me too."

"Well then, do you have a place to stay tonight?"

Gene looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark. "Oh &%*$! I already left my apartment when I came here this morning. I don't have a place to stay."

"Don't worry," assured the principal, "Konoka, do you think you still have some room for one more roommate?"

"What? Are you saying that he's going to…to…sleep in our room?" shouted Asuna.

"What? You didn't have a problem when Negi moved in," replied the principal.

"But, but, he's sixteen. He shouldn't even be near a girls' dorm. Why do _we_ have to take _him_ in?"

"Okay, grandpa," answered Konoka without listening to Asuna.

"Good," replied the principal, "Now, let's go. It is getting late."

"Man," sighed Asuna as they were walking to the dorms, "Why are we always the ones who have to take in more roommates?"

"You've forgotten Kotarou," quipped Konoka, "He moved in with Natsumi, Ayaka, and Chizune."

"Well, he and Negi are still kids. That guy there is only a few years older than us. He's worse."

"Sheesh," Gene interrupted, "You'd think I don't exist or something, the way you guys are talking."

Asuna pulled a fan out of nowhere and slapped Gene on the face with it. "Shut up. I'll never accept you. Remember that."

"I don't get it," Gene said from the ground, "Where did you get that fan anyway? That's heavy."

Asuna turned around and continued walking. Konoka and Negi struggled to pull Gene back up.

"Sorry about that," Negi apologized, "She can be very stubborn."

"Remember, if you do anything wrong with anyone in our dorms, I'll kill you," Asuna warned Gene for the tenth time.

"Alright, alright," Gene replied, tired of being reminded so many times. He turned to look at his bed. It was propped under Negi's bed and had a closet on the wall with enough space for his belongings. "Not like I would do anything to you of all people," he whispered under his breath.

Asuna's fan flew and hit the back of his head. Gene rolled over and crashed into the closet. "Thank you for sharing your room with me," he called weakly from inside.

That night, Asuna woke up because of a constant light from below her bunk. She looked down and saw that Konoka, who slept under her bed, was sleeping. However, Gene had propped up a makeshift desk and was studying the class roster Negi had given him.

Noticing that someone was watching him, he looked up at Asuna and smiled. He then returned to looking through the class roster.

_Sheesh,_ Asuna thought in her head, _Now I feel guilty for being mean to him today. He really wants to do his job well, doesn't he._

The next day, Gene looked up and saw Asuna already dressed up. He had spent most of the night memorizing the names and faces of his students; he had also spent some time thinking of the next lesson for the day.

"You're already going out?" he asked Asuna.

"Of course," she replied, "I deliver papers in the morning. I have to pay for my tuition and room somehow."

"So you want to be independent. I guess you can be responsible sometimes," Gene smiled at her.

Asuna's face became red, and she punched him flat. After she had left the room, Gene remarked to himself, "A man can take only so many hits. However, I think that it will be a miracle if anyone survives one of hers."

**Chapter 3: *Hopefully* Another Chance**

Gene opened the door to the class and entered with Negi; this time, there was no falling eraser, so Gene thought that maybe today would be a good day. All the students had already arrived by the time Gene entered the room.

"Umm," he said as he stood in front of the class. He then bowed to the class, "My name is Albert Genehyuk Gim. I'm from America and will be your supplemental teacher from now on. Nice to meet all of you."

"Oooh," exclaimed the class, "Where are you from."

"From California. However, I graduated and got my teaching credentials from MIT."

"Wow, you look different from the typical American. Which nationality are you?"

"Umm, I'm Korean and actually spent some years over there," Gene replied.

"Your Japanese is so good. Where did you learn it?"

"I learned it at school. One of my minors was foreign languages so I learned a few other languages, Japanese being one of them."

"So what languages do you know?"

Gene counted his fingers and thought for a few seconds. "I obviously know English, Korean, and Japanese. I also learned to read and speak in Latin, Greek, Russian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and French."

The class made sounds of admiration, and Gene thought that it really was going to be a good day.

After school, Negi and Gene were in the teacher's lounge. Negi was just explaining how there was an afterschool class for students who had some problems and needed help.

"Usually, there are five specific people who always show up so they've called themselves the Baka Rangers," Negi finished. (For those who don't know. "Baka" means idiot in Japanese. We would have translated it, but the English version sucks and has no humor in it whatsoever.)

Gene spat out the tea he was drinking and began laughing hysterically, "Oh my God, that's just hilarious and original. Baka Rangers."

"Baka Rangers assembled," cheered a tall girl who seemed to squint so much that her eyes were not showing.

Just as Negi had said, there were five people in the classroom. In front of them were name cards which instead of having their names, had their color.

"I'm Yue Ayase," said a short girl who seemed to always have a bored expression on her face, "Also known as Baka Black."

"I'm Makie Sasaki," chirped a girl with pinkish hair, "I'm Baka Pink."

"I'm Ku-Fei, aru," said a cheerful girl who had a distinct Chinese accent, "I'm Baka Yellow, aru."

"I'm Kaede Nagase," said the girl with closed eyes, "I'm Baka Blue, de gozaru"

"'de gozaru'?" Gene wondered in his head.

Asuna was last; she glared at him. "You already know my name!" she snapped at him when he continued staring at her.

"So which color are you?" Gene asked.

"She's Baka Red," said everyone else in the class.

"Don't call me Baka Red!" she yelled at the others.

"Anyways," Gene interrupted, "Let's get on with the lesson. I'll pass around a ten-question test. If you get more than half correct, you can leave. I'll help you after you show me you finish your tests."

After a few seconds, a loud rumbling was felt in the class.

"What was that?" Gene wondered out loud.

There was a pause, and then everyone in the class heard an explosively loud voice shout, "Manly!"

Everyone in the class, except for Gene ducked under their desks.

"Hey!" he called out to them, "Get back u-"

The wall behind him exploded inwards and showered the class with rubble. A few students in gym clothes ran through the hole and looked in fear behind them. When they saw someone, they screamed and ran through the door and into the hallway.

A few seconds later, a large, heavyset man in a running suit ran into the room and looked at the members of the Baka Rangers who were peering over their desks to see if everything was clear.

"Where did they run off to?" he boomed at them.

They all pointed to the door, and he stepped up to it. He then pulled his fist back and said "Manly!" as he punched the door. He blew a hole through it and through the five walls behind it. After looking around, he ran through and began shouting again.

"What the hell was that?" groaned Gene under the rubble. He pushed off a large chunk of the wall which had fallen on top of him and inspected the classroom.

"That was the head of the gym department," Yue said, "He's fond of saying 'Manly' before punching things. He also is infamous for his moronic strength and therefore is also the hall monitor."

"Well, after that, I doubt that we want to focus on studying, so turn in your tests and go home. I'll tell you about your mistakes later."

They all cheered and ran out. Gene looked at the mess and wondered how the school was going to repair the damaged building. Judging by the vigor the gym teacher had used to punch a door for himself instead of using the door, he would most likely destroy half the school before stopping.

"Well," he said to no one in particular, "At least the class seems to accept me more. Other than this incident, today was a good day."

**Chapter 4: Deadliest Staff Meeting**

Negi pushed and shook Gene awake. "Whazzup," Gene muttered sleepily.

"Hurry up, we'll be late if you don't hurry," Negi urged him.

"Why do I have to get up right now? It's Saturday."

"Today, there is a staff meeting. It's at nine. Get up please. The principal called for this staff meeting especially to introduce you."

"Really?" Gene jumped up and pushed Negi away. "I have to get ready then. What time is it?"  
"Eight," Negi answered, "I tried waking you up earlier, but you kept sleeping."

Gene opened his closet and began changing then and there. Thankfully, by the time Konoka and Asuna had woken up, he had already finished changing.

"Sorry, have to go. I like my eggs sunny-side up," he called towards them and ran with Negi out the door.

"Sorry for being late," Gene immediately said as he opened the door to the teacher's lounge.

However, the room was completely empty except for Takahata and the principal. Gene then turned around and glared at Negi. "I'm gonna kill you, you stupid onion," he shouted at Negi and began chasing him.

"Ah, youth," the principal laughed. Takahata smiled as well.

Eventually, the other teachers entered the room. Each introduced him or herself to Gene. First, there was the Vice-Principal, Jack Rakan, a tall and well-built man in his forties. The next was the gym teacher, who introduced himself as merely Gai. "Sorry about that event yesterday," he apologized and shook Gene's hand.

The next was the military history teacher, Johann Stein. Then came the secretary, Shizuna-sensei, a buxom woman in her thirties. The rest of teachers introduced themselves as well and sat down.

The principal stood up and cleared his throat. "As you all know, we have a new teacher. He's going to be the supplemental teacher for class 3-A. I expect all of you to help him transition to his job."

Suddenly, there was a heated argument between the gym teacher and the military history teacher.

"No, no, no," shouted Gai, "A man should always only use his fists to fight. Using such cowardly means such as ki blasts are for weaklings."

"Oh, shut up you old man. I bet you would lose within two seconds against a ki user."

"Ha! As if I would lose to any loser, you included."

Stein jumped up and held his hand out. "Soul Threat," he breathed, "1951 Beretta M."

A blast came from his palm and shot the gym teacher off his chair. Gai stood up as if nothing had happened. "What was that?" he taunted, "That felt like a nice evening breeze. Let me show you a real manly attack."

He disappeared and reappeared in front of Stein. His fist went forward, and Gai shouted, "Manly!"

The explosion rocked the floor, and when the smoke cleared, Gai and Stein were already out on the field, facing each other. Stein then reappeared in front of Gai and had his palm in front of the other's stomach.

"Soul Threat, AK-47."

Gai's body began shaking like mad as if he were being defibrillated constantly. He collapsed, and Stein cupped his both of his hands so that only his fingers were touching Gai's chest.

"Soul Threat, Double Barrel Shotgun."

"Manly Willpower Defense," Gai shouted in reply.

The shockwave from the explosion could be felt even from the teacher's lounge.

"Oh my," muttered the principal, "They always get into fights like these." He then clapped his hands, gaining everyone's attention. "Alright, who wants to stop them before they use their deathblows."

"Too late," shouted Rakan, "I think they're gonna use them right now."

The smoke had cleared, and both men were looking at each other. Gai's shirt had been ripped to pieces, but he still looked intact. It seemed like Gai had been able to land some hits on Stein as well; he face had a few bruises, and his suit was ruined.

"It seems like there's only one way to decide this," Stein panted.

"Of course," replied Gai.

The air seemed to vibrate from the energy they were gathering for the next round. A rabbit passed by between them, and they jumped at each other. Stein had both his palms open and retracted to his body; large amounts of ki gathered on his hands. Gai had his fist pulled back, and it was shining with the amount of power he had put into it.

When they were face-to-face, they used their attacks.

"Soul Death, Twin Desert Eagle Custom!"

"Manly Impact. Full Throttle!"

Everyone had ducked in expectation of the explosion, but nothing happened. They all looked from their shelters and saw that Gene was missing. They looked over at the field to see what was left.

Gene was in between them; there was a series of plates which floated over his back and along his arms with three, pure-white streams coming down from his back. On his right arm, the plates ended with a claw which held a giant katana which was pointed at the throat of Stein. On the other end, the white streams were pointed at Gai's throat. Although they seemed like mere cloth, each ribbon seemed to move on its own and have a sharp point at the end. The plates on his left hand also ended in a smaller claw which held Gai's fist.

"Sheesh," Gene said so that everyone could hear, "Fight in a place where no one will get hurt. The school loses enough money from your attacks as it is."

The principal stroked his beard, "Ho, looks like he will be a good addition to the staff."

**Author's Section**

(Hello, I'm the narrator. Call me Narrator God. No, this is not because I am God. It's just a proper noun, like Big Boy, Jason, and Farvour.)

[Hello, I'm the author. Yes, the narrator and the author are two completely different people.]

(For those among you who are wondering why we are talking in brackets and parentheses, it's to note who is talking. Parentheses show that I'm talking. Brackets show that the author is talking.)

[So, I see you jumped the gun and had your debut before me.]

(What do you mean?)

[There were some parts in this volume where you added some information. I thought we had an agreement that we wouldn't do this until the author's section.]

(So.)

[Never mind.]

[Okay, now that we're done with the introductions, let's move on to the questions.]

(We're doing a Q&A section right now?)

[Of course, this is the first part. We should at least get rid of some of the questions that the readers might have. That's why that box full of questions are right next to you]

(Oh, right. Ahem, first question: Why are some of the character names from _Mahou Sensei Negima_? You know, I've been wondering about that too.)

[Okay. For starters, this is a fanfiction of some mangas, especially _Negima_, that I've been reading for the past few years. I decided to start with _Negima_ because of the large cast and because I really like the series. Or you could have read the introduction. Next question.]

(Why the hell did Gene have that armor on him there and why was he able to stop the attacks from both Gai and Stein?)

[I'm taking that secret to the grave. Next question.]

(Why do you add some Japanese honorifics and speech patterns?)

[Well, for one, remember, this is in Japan. Second, I felt like leaving some honorifics and speech patterns in Japanese helps show how the characters interact with each other and also helps transition them to my work.]

(And final question, why were Takahata, Negi, Konoka, and Asuna able to enter the room without experiencing any of those teacher traps.)

[Well…I know that I had one of the students put an eraser in the door, but I don't remember putting those other traps. Do you know how that happened?]

(Umm…)

[You had something to do with it, didn't you.]

(Well, he was starting to look suspicious with that eraser hanging over his head. When he finally let it fall, he was beginning to look very suspicious. So then, I intervened. Because of the series of traps I had set up thanks to my higher being powers, everyone was distracted from the event earlier and was now focusing on how epic that prank was.)

[Wasn't that taking it too far?]

(Hey, it worked. No one asked about it except for Negi, and that was supposed to be alright anyways.)

[True. Anyways, that's all for now. Next time, expect more chapters and less author notes. Hope you enjoyed this.]

(Fade to black…black…black…)

[You don't have to do that, you know.]

(I know, but it makes me sound cool.)


	2. And So the Introductions Continue

**Chapter 1: In Kendo, They Teach Us to Fight by Beating Us Up**

"Crap, we're going to be late," Asuna shouted at them as they ran towards Mahora Academy. Behind Asuna were Konoka, Negi, and Gene, desperately trying to catch up with her.

"Good morning, Negi-kun, Gene-sensei," Maki called out from beside them.

"Hi Makie," Gene called back, "Did you do the homework."

"Yeah. Thank you for the advice. It helped a lot."

"Glad to have helped."

Konoka looked ahead and cried out in glee, "Good morning, Set-chan."

A girl from their class stood waiting in front of them. She held something long wrapped in a blue, cloth case at her side and had her tail in a jutting ponytail. She would have been considered pretty had she not had such a serious face.

Gene took out the class roster and looked over it a few times. "Good morning, Setsuna Sakurazaki."

"Good morning," she said and bowed.

When they had entered the Academy building, she pulled Gene aside. "So I hear that you are living in the same room as Ojou-sama."

"Who?"

"Konoka Ojou-sama."

"Why 'Ojou-sama'?"

"Listen to me!" she shook him, "If you do anything to Ojou-sama, I will personally hunt you down and kill you."

She then loosened the tie on her case and showed Gene the hilt of what was obviously a blade. Satisfied that her message had been sent, she tightened the knot around her bag and ran to class.

"Great," Gene groaned, "Now I have two death threats on me."

After school, Gene arranged a study session in his room. The first students who came in were the Baka Rangers. Next came a few people whom Gene recognized were from the Library Club. Then, came the class representative and the cheerleaders who immediately began a conversation with Negi.

Soon, it got to the point where the room was stuffed with almost the entire class; Asuna became so tired of the noise that she kicked everyone out, literally.

Gene massage his head and looked at the door Asuna had slammed shut. "Man, where does she get the strength to literally kick us out."

"Umm, excuse me," said a shy girl with her hair covering her face, "You're sitting on someone."

Gene looked down and saw that Asuna really had kicked everyone out, including Konoka. He had landed on top of her…chest. (Damnit, do I really have to say this?)

[Of course you do. It's part of your job description. 'Say everything on the script.' We're really cutting it close with this conversation anyways.]

(But…)

[Shut up and get back to work. This is where it gets hairy.]

"Sorry, sorry," Gene apologized profusely to Konoka.

"Ah, it's alright," she cheerfully replied. However, there was someone who was not alright.

Gene felt a very cold and murderous gaze looking at him, and he felt a shudder go down his spine. "Don't tell me," he thought and looked behind him.

It was Setsuna; she was shaking in anger and had already pulled out her sword. "You," she stammered, "You…WHAT DID I TELL YOU!"

"_Shinmeiryu ougi, Raimeiken! _" she shouted and swung her sword down.

The electrical explosion knocked everyone away like leaves in the wind, and Gene was sent flying down the hallway. He crashed through the wall at the end and landed on his feet outside of the building.

Setsuna flew out and landed behind him with her sword already out. She then turned around and slashed her blade.

"_Zanganken." _

Gene jumped up and dodged the attack which instead cut the light pole behind him. It teetered for a few seconds before falling down.

"_Zankusho-San!_" she shouted and swung her palm. Her hand left a trail from which projectiles shot out.

Gene put up his hand, and the shots hit some barrier and dissipated. When he could see again, she had disappeared.

"Where is she?" he thought and saw, too late, that she was right in front of him. Both of her legs grabbed his neck.

"Crap!" he thought before he was flew up into the air. She lifted him up with her legs and flipped around three times before slamming him into the ground.

"_Shinmeiryu ougi, Ukigumo - Sakura Sanka_."

After the dust cleared, Setsuna could be seen with her sword in front of a prone Gene's chest. "This is the end," she said and stabbed her sword into him.

Gene's body shuddered and seemed to melt around her blade. A hand shot out of the ground and grabbed onto her wrist. The pressure forced her to let go of her blade, and Gene burst out of the ground.

He then punched Setsuna in the stomach, forcing her to fall unconscious. "Jesus," he thought as he looked at the earthen dummy, "For a moment there, I thought I was about to die. Thankfully, I kept in practice."

When Setsuna woke up, she looked around and saw Konoka looking at her with worry. She then straightened and bowed her head low to her. "Forgive me. I was unable to keep my promise of protecting you from him."

"Ara? When did you make a promise like that?"

"Eh?"

Setsuna seemed to realize something and blushed. She then ran away without saying what she realized.

(It was because you dreamed of making the promise to Konoka and made the other promise to Gene in real life. Are you serious? This entire event was from a mistake between dream and reality?)

[Why not? Everyone needs a wake-up call sometime.]

(But shouldn't we have someone tell them that it was a misunderstanding?)

[…Nope. It's more fun if we have misunderstandings anyways.]

Setsuna looked up and saw Gene looking at her. "Umm, sorry about what happened earlier. Let's start over again, shall we?"

She uneasily looked around before hesitantly nodding. Gene flicked her in the forehead. "That's for damaging school property," he said and laughed. Setsuna's serious face broke for a second, and she smiled too.

[See, told you that they would get over it somehow.]

(Still, it was mean to devote an entire chapter and a fight over some promise made in a dream which no one else but us knows about. If you ask me, that's screwed up.)

[Hey, because of this, there's one more student who accepts him.]

(True, true…Hey! Are you going to end the chapter before I can finish crit-)

**Chapter 2: Why Are Ghosts Always Whitish?**

"Hi, I'm Sayo Aisaka. Some people complain about not being able to be notice by others, like a certain blue, alien frog," said a girl with a pale complexion, "However, they don't know how often ghosts are ignored."

A view downward showed that her body seemed to become transparent until it completely disappeared. Another giveaway was that her feet were through the floor.

(Seriously? A ghost. Why are you adding a ghost now?)

[Why not?]

(Well, unless the ghost is the main character, it never appears until like chapter 74 of a manga.)

"Well," she said to herself, "It's not like before. Nowadays, there are people who do notice me. Most of the class does know that I exist, but the new teacher doesn't seem to notice me. Like when we voted on whether we should move the test to next week, he didn't notice my vote."

"This year, I'll make sure that everyone notices me," she finally proposed to herself.

The next day was the second day Gene would teach the whole class by himself. Since the trimester-final exams were coming up next month, they were reviewing material which would be on the test.

"Okay, let's have a vote," he said, "Who wants to review trigonometry today?"

He began counting the people who had raised their hands, and Sayo decided to raise her hand. When Gene came to her row, he stopped and took a good look at Sayo.

"Wait a minute," he thought in his head, "Why is one of the students wearing a sailor fuku? That isn't part of the school's dress code, strange. Is she rebelling against the school or something? And why is her body slowly becoming transparent as I'm looking closer at her…"

He then said out loud, "Good lord, you're a ghost!"

Everyone in the class looked at Sayo and back at him. "Of course Sayo is a ghost. Didn't you notice that when you first got here?" said her desk mate.

"Well," he stalled, "There were a lot of events which occurred during my first few days here." Everyone smiled at each other. "And I never noticed she was wearing a sailor fuku before, so I thought she was part of the class."

As if the interruption had not occurred, he continued with the review lesson: "So the values of sine, cosine, and tangent are all ratios of the sides of right triangles. If you put them on a 360o Cartesian axis and assume that the x-axis is the adjacent side of an angle, you can find the trigonometric values of angles greater than 90o…"

After class, Sayo approached Gene who was at the café next to their dorms. She sat down on the chair next to him; her figure bobbed up and down through the chair. After waiting for a few minutes, she asked him, "If you can see ghosts, why didn't you notice me sooner? Like yesterday, you skipped my vote."

"No, I didn't," he replied and laughed at her astonished expression, "My mind just counts so fast that I can count votes by rows instantly. That's why it might have seemed to you that I didn't notice your vote.

"I knew you were here; I just never noticed you were a ghost until today."

He sipped his drink and spat it out upon realizing that the bitter taste in his mouth was coffee.

He swore, "They always give me coffee when I tell them that I hate coffee."

He looked at Sayo who was convulsing with laughter; he then smiled too.

"So, how can you see ghosts so well that they look like people?" Sayo asked.

"Well, I always had that ability since I was young. Since my vision was so good, I never realized I could see them until people began asking me why I was talking to thin air. Even then, I can rarely tell them apart from real people, so I've always talked with them as if they were real people. Back in the US, there were a few ghosts who always followed me around; they were good company, and we always helped each other."

He then stood up, "So why are you still a ghost?"

Sayo shuffled and looked away, "I forgot why I still wanted to stay here. It's been so long, 60 years in fact."

She was afraid that Gene would laugh at the fact that she had forgotten her reason for staying, but he merely shrugged. "That happens a lot with ghosts. They spend their first few years obsessing about their deaths that they forget details about the rest of their life like why they died or what they had left undone," he explained, "Do you want to move on?"

"No, actually," she replied after thinking about it for a minute, "After the class began to notice me, I've begun to make friends again. If I move on, I'll have to leave them. If I have a choice to move on, I'll pass it for now."

Gene smiled and then stood up to pat Sayo on the head. "Well then, see you tomorrow," he said and walked back to the dorms. Sayo stayed in her seat for a while; she then touched the place where Gene had patted and blushed.

"Where were you?" complained Asuna when Gene came through the door, "We were beginning to worry that something had happened to you."

"Just taking a drink at the café next door," Gene replied and sat down on his bed. He reached into his bag and took out the class roster. After flipping it open, he looked for Sayo's picture. When he found it, he took out a pen and marked next to her picture: a friendly, but shy ghost.

(Well, all's well that ends well, I suppose.)

[Hey, what's with that cliché expression?]

(I doubted that you could introduce the ghost correctly.)

[Hey, that's up to the audience to decide.]

(Why are we even having this discussion at the end of the chapter?)

[Oh, just to see how long of a conversation we can have together. Why?]

(That's it? Then it's time for my revenge. END!)

[Hey, are you going to end this chapter before we can get to the end of the page? Who gave you the power to do this? I never authorized thi-]

**Chapter 3: And They Say that the Library of Congress is Big.**

That morning, a furious knocking woke up everyone in the room. Negi sleepily climbed down the ladder from his bed on the top bunk and opened the door.

"Hello," he tiredly breathed out before looking at their visitors. Outside were Yue and another girl who had her hair covering her eyes.

"Ah, Nodoka-san, Yue-san. Good morning. What brings you two here?"

"Who is it?" Gene called from his bed, "Are they advertisers? If they are, tell them that I'm not here."

"No, they're students."

"Oh, in that case, tell them that I'm not available until 8am. I can't stand waking up at 4 in the morning. I thought I had left that phase of my life behind after graduating."

Negi set up the table and asked Nodoka and Yue to sit down. "So, why are you here so early?"

Yue answered, "We think we found something which pertains to your father. However, the library closed before we could borrow it; so we decided to come by here and bring you there."

Negi immediately began packing his staff and backpack and was about to walk out the door when Gene said something to them.

"Baka Black," Gene called, "Where are you guys going?"

"To Library Island."

"Oh, I always wondered why they needed an island to devote to having a library. I'll go along with you."

Yue and Nodoka opened the door to the library and led Negi and Gene in. Then came Asuna, because she was worried that something might happen to Negi, and Konoka, because she wanted to go for the heck of it, and Setsuna, because Konoka was going.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring so many people here so early in the morning?" Gene discreetly asked Negi after they had all gotten inside.

"It should be alright. They're usually okay when the Library Exploration Club does a few overnight treks in here," Negi replied.

"Why is the club called the Library Exploration Club, and why would they need more than one night to explore the…oh."

Yue had gone to the side and turned on the lights. After their eyes had adjusted to the sudden illumination, they saw a vast maze of bookshelves. Some shelves were formatted to look like steps so one could climb to the top of the shelves, and it seemed like the shelves extended far above them and below into some impossible chasm. There were some platforms where one could walk for a distance before having to move back up.

"The library is divided into many sections. Some are rest areas while most are devoted to bookshelves. Because of the sheer amount of books the library has, the library was renovated to the current design. Other than a few select staff members, no one knows the full extent of the library," explained Yue to Gene.

"That's why the Library Exploration Club is for," added Nodoka, "To make sure that students can guide their fellow students in looking for books that they need. We volunteer some of our time for this and spend the rest of our time exploring the library."

"I see why your club has 'Exploration' in it. Judging from the complex structure of the place, it would take years to fully map the entire library."

Yue went in front of them and pulled out a map; it was detailed with diagrams of bookshelves and labels of the genres of the books in the library. She then folded it and pointed down. "That's where the book is," she said.

"Wait a minute," Gene interrupted, "Why do we need a map to know where the book is when you guys said you were about to check it out?"

"We saw the book in the catalogue, idiot," Yue replied in a monotone and walked down the stairs.

Everyone stared at Gene to see how he would react; he laughed and merely said, "She's good."

Eventually, the descending stairs began to turn from concrete to stone and eventually stopped in front of a chasm. Yue slung off her backpack, checked the map again, and motioned to Nodoka. Nodoka reached in her bag and pulled out a grappling hook and some slings.

"You can't be serious," Asuna exclaimed, "We're really going to climb down."

"Of course," Yue replied, "The book's down there."

"Come on, Asuna. Cheer up. This is just like before," Konoka added.

"Don't remind me." Asuna put her head into her hands.

"We're so close now," Negi begged to her, "I have to see that book."

"Aww, I knew this was a bad idea," complained Asuna. They had climbed down a fair distance and there was no sign that they had reached the bottom. By using the grappling hook, slings, and the books on the cliff wall, which turned out to be a large bookcase, they were scaling down to where Yue said a passage would appear.

"Hey, wait a minute. Where's Gene?" Negi asked.

Everyone looked around, and Asuna screamed and pointed next to them. Gene was standing sideways on the bookshelf as if it were the floor. Strangely, neither his hair nor his clothes were hanging down and instead appeared as they would on solid ground.

"How can you do that?" everyone asked.

"Huh, do what?" Gene replied, genuinely puzzled.

"Stand horizontally like that."

"I thought everyone here could do it."

"Umm," interrupted Yue, "I wouldn't stand on that book if I were you?"

"Why?"

"That book you're standing on top of-"

The book Gene was on top of turned out to be a brick and fell off. Gene suddenly found himself in midair within seconds. "Ara?" he said before falling down.

"is a trap book which will fall off if you touch it," finished Yue.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah," Gene cried out as he fell towards the bottom. After nearly a minute of nonstop screaming and falling, they heard a splashing sound.

"Don't worry," he called back up to them, "I can see where we're supposed to be going."

"How did you survive that drop?" Negi asked.

"Well, I'm guessing that if this were a manga, it would be shounen."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind, just get down here."

When everyone had arrived at the bottom, Gene had already set up a tea table and was drinking some tea with Sayo. When they noticed that the others had arrived, they waved at them.

Asuna pulled out a _harisen_ out of nowhere and hit Gene on the head with it.

"Idiot!" she shouted at him, "Take this seriously. You nearly fell to your death and here you are, drinking tea as if nothing had happened."

"Why is Sayo here?" asked Nodoka.

"Umm, I was wondering why you were all here so early in the morning," Sayo nervously replied.

"Everyone, the book's this way," Yue shouted, not bothered by the fact that there was one more person in their group, and pointed down a hallway.

"Oh, so Negi-sensei came here to look for a book which might be about his father," Sayo said after Gene had explained why they were at the library.

"And," Gene whispered into her ear, "Don't tell them how I survived the drop. OK."

"What are you whispering about," Asuna called out to him, "According to Yue, we're almost there. Didn't you hear her?"

Gene and Sayo ran to the end of the hallway. The old stone hall opened up into a grassy expanse with a lake in the middle.

(Are you serious?)

[What is it this time?]

(A lake. In a library. What do you think that will do to the books?)

[Whatever do you mean?]

(The humidity from the lake will cause mold in the books, idiot.)

[Okay. I'm tired of your complaining of how I write the setting, how I do the dialogue, how I do everything. Just shut up. I didn't hire you to do this.]

(*Sigh. Anyways, we'll conclude the library adventure next chapter.)

**Chapter 4: Thanks to Dragonball, Everyone Knows What Super Saiyan is**

Everyone marveled at the beautiful lake scene. Although it was underneath the library, there was grass and other forms of greenery between columns disguised as realistic trees. Konoka pointed towards the center of the lake and shouted, "Look!"

In the middle of the lake was a small island with a pavilion on top of it. Everyone was looking for a path or bridge to it when Setsuna approached the edge and looked towards the bottom. She touched her hands on the grass and felt around; her hand eventually caught something, and she pulled up.

The water in front of her bubbled, and a boat plopped up. Negi offered to test it first and stepped on it. It seemed pretty stable despite the fact that it had been underwater just minutes ago.

Everyone squeezed into the boat; as if by magic, it began propelling itself to the center of the island. As they neared the pavilion, the details began to become more pronounced. It was built not to a traditional Japanese building but as an ancient Greek or Roman temple. On top were inscriptions and murals of mages and monsters.

The boat came to a stop in front of the island, and everyone got off. Negi, seeing his goal so close at hand, ran into the temple ahead of everyone else.

"Negi," Asuna called out and ran after him. Nodoka and Yue also ran into the building.

When Gene entered the pavilion, he saw that the only thing inside was a glass dome which protected a novel-sized book inside. The covers were pitch-black, and the title was written in gold leaf: "Evangeline's Diary".

"Who's Evangeline?" Gene asked.

"I am," said a voice behind them.

Everyone looked at the doorway and saw a short, blond girl, who looked no older than Negi, looking at them with an evil smirk on her face.

"So," she said, "The boy decides to peek in his master's old diary to find information about his father, eh?"

"Umm, Master," Negi stammered. She didn't even let him finish his sentence. Her first kick hit him in the stomach, and he crumpled to the ground. She put her foot on top of him and began stomping down.

"Or, you thought that you could have found some juicy information about your master. Don't try lying to me. I see how it is!" She shouted at him as she stepped on him.

"Aren't you guys going to do anything about her?" Gene asked the other girls and turned around. They were all hiding behind the pillars and hoping not to be seen.

A loud explosion turned their attention outside. "MANLY!" echoed throughout the cavern, and Gene slapped his hand onto his face and groaned, "Oh God, not him."

The wall next to the hallway blew open and revealed Gai-sensei, the gym teacher. He ran forward, over the lake, and crashed into the pavilion. "MANLY!" he shouted again and punched the wall open instead of using the entrance.

"You," he shouted at Gene who was hiding behind the glass case for cover, "We have a score to settle. I'll make sure to go at you with full youth and manliness."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gene asked.

"That day during the teacher's meeting, you interrupted my match. Therefore, I have to beat you."

"Jeez. You have a weird sense of logic."

"Who cares! Now, face my power at maximum youth!"

Gai then closed his eyes and began concentrating; the air around him seemed to vibrate. Then, a huge burst of energy came pouring out of him, and he began screaming, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The energy began to gather around his body in a storm, and his hair began to turn yellow. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-ach!" he retched, and the energy around him began changing color from yellow to red.

"GAH!" The energy around him exploded, and the shockwaves shook the entire cavern.

When the dust cleared, the lake water, which had been blown to the sides, began refilling the basin. The island, and the pavilion on top of it, had been completely destroyed, and all that could be seen was Gai's limp body floating on top of the water.

In a cottage situated in the woods nearby Mahora Academy, a magical circle appeared on the ground, and Evangeline and the others appeared on top of it.

"Whew, thought I was about to die there for a second," Gene breathed out.

"Eva-chan," Asuna complained, "Don't you think we shouldn't be showing _that_ to him?"

"Why not?" she replied, "It's obvious that he is somewhat related to this. And anyways, the boy over there has done worse than I have in this matter."

"Do you think Gai-sensei is going to be alright?" Nodoka asked Eva.

"I wouldn't worry about that idiot. He's survived exploding himself before."

"Now, boya," Evangeline said and returned her attention to Negi, "We've got a little over an hour before school starts, just enough time to punish you."

"You can't mean-," Negi said, very worried about Evangeline's evil grin.

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him downstairs.

"Are they lovers or something?" Gene asked.

"Hey, you all get down here too," Eva called out.

"Umm, I think I'll go," Sayo said nervously and flew away. Only Gene was puzzled about why she had left.

"Hey, Eva," Gene asked, "Why do you live separate from everyone else?"

"Because, I hate idiots," she replied and pulled off the cover of a pedestal in her basement, revealing a series of glass globes underneath a magic circle, "Come."

The circle glowed, and everyone disappeared.

**Chapter 5, It Must Have Been a Pain For Akamatsu to Introduce about 40 Characters at Once**

Gene opened his eyes and saw that they were in the middle of a beachside villa. He looked around and ran to the edge of the platform they had appeared in. Below them was the cresting foam of the ocean.

"Wow, where is this place?" Gene asked.

"This is my villa. One day here equals an hour outside, so don't worry about being late for school," Eva explained, "And now for the boya's punishment. Chachamaru! Chachazero!"

A teenage girl and a wooden doll appeared, and Eva threw Negi up into the air. She then jumped up and smashed Negi off into the main courtyard of the villa.

"Let's go train the boy," Eva instructed her assistants, and they all flew off to where Negi had landed.

"Ooookay, that was random," Gene finally said, "Who were they?"

The girls looked at each other and then pointed at Asuna. "You explain it to him."

Asuna sighed and slapped her forehead with her palm. "Alright, I'll do it. Negi-sensei's a mage."

Gene looked at them with a blank look and replied, "No, duh. I knew that from day 1. What else do you need to explain to me?"

"Eh?" all the girls exclaimed, "You knew?"

Gene shrugged, "Of course. Don't you think I wouldn't notice that barrier he keeps around himself all the time? It was as clear as day to me."

Yue held up her hand and asked Gene, "So are you a mage?"

"Nope, I'm an inter-dimensional traveler whose travelling across these worlds to record and map the mechanics of each world," Gene said with a deadpan expression.

Everyone stared at him until he began shuffling. "Well, I guess this is pretty far-fetched, but our class is about as weird as me, in my opinion. We have quite the varied cast of weirdoes in our class, including you guys," Gene stammered out.

"So if you are what you say you are, how do you get around? Do you have some white, meatbun, chibi-rabbit which takes you across dimensions?" Asuna asked.

"No, but I can guess where you got that one from. How I get around is a S-E-C-R-E-T. Eventually, you'll catch on. Anyways, tell me about yourselves; from what I've gathered about mages here, if any human witnesses a mage at work, the said mage gets turned into an ermine."

Yue nodded at the other girls; they rustled through their pockets, and each girl took out a card. "It's because we've formed a _Pactio_ with Negi."

Gene nearly burst out into laughter, "That lucky brat. You mean he's kissed all of you. Oh god, what anyone else would give to be in his situation. Ha."

Yue then asked him, "I've been wondering. How do you know so much about magic and its mechanics? I don't think you could have studied as much as you have done and still have enough time to study magic. In fact, I can't see how you could have been introduced to magic in the first place."

Gene smiled and held out a finger; a flame sparked to life on the tip of it. "I've travelled to many worlds," he said, "And many had some form of magic, and I learned it from each world. In some places, what the people call magic is completely different from what you would call magic. As for your question, I think I've visited here before."

A loud explosion interrupted their conversation and turned their attention to Eva's villa. Negi flew out from another explosion and landed onto Asuna. They both fell over; Negi was on top of Asuna in a very weird way.

Asuna looked at Negi in surprise and then reddened when she realized that Negi's face was in her chest. "Wha-? Negi! You pervert!" she shouted and punched Negi back up into the air.

Eva flew over and grabbed Negi by the wrist. "We still haven't finished with your training," she said with an evil grin and threw Negi back to the ground, "Chachamaru!"

The teenage girl came over. On closer look, she had robotic bars sticking out of her ear areas, and when she talked, her voice was a monotone. "Sorry, senesi," she said and punched Negi off the balcony and into the water below.

Negi's scream could be heard for a few seconds before he splashed into the water. Evangeline floated down to the ground and looked at Gene.

"Well," she said arrogantly, "What are you staring at? Have you never seen a vampire before?"

"You're a vampire?" Gene asked. Eva sighed and pulled the corner of her mouth, revealing vampire teeth.

Gene peered at them closely. After inspecting them for a few seconds, he asked, "Are you sure that you and that girl over there are not cosplaying or something."

A vein popped in Eva's head, and she snapped her fingers. Icicles popped out of the ground and trapped Gene inside of them.

"Whoa, don't do that so suddenly," Gene said from above them. He was upside down and standing in midair as if it was natural to him.

Eva looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something when Negi climbed back up from the sea. Gene looked at him in surprise and remarked, "You must have a really good double-jump and up-B move."

Negi panted hard and suddenly, felt his nose itch. He breathed in and out as if almost sneezing but stopped. When it seemed everything was fine, his face contorted again, and he sneezed.

Everyone nearest to him, Asuna, Konoka, Nodoka, and Yue, had their skirts blown up, revealing more than what needed to be seen.

Asuna blushed and shook in fury. She stomped over to where Negi was still struggling to get back on the platform and kicked his hands off. He struggled for a few seconds before falling down again.

Negi's scream could be heard for a few more seconds before he splashed into the water, again. Gene stared at Asuna with half-closed eyes. "That was mean," he chastised her, "It's not like bear panties are that embarrassing."

Asuna held her head down in remorse and then realized what Gene had said. She shook in anger and pulled out her harisen and smacked Gene on the face. He spun over dramatically before falling on the ground, right below Setsuna. Gene shook his head and looked up.

"Those are the same underpants you wore when you attacked me that other day. Are you sure that you change them everyday?" he noted.

Setsuna also became red with anger and looked at Asuna. They both nodded in silent agreement, and Setsuna pulled out her nodachi while Asuna pulled out her harisen again.

"_Shinreimyu ougi, Hyakka Ryoran_," Setsuna cried out and slashed her sword at Gene. Although he dodged the blade, the wave of ki petals knocked him over near the edge of the platform. Asuna followed up with a hit from her fan, which pushed Gene off the edge.

"Fall down and join that perverted Negi!" Asuna shouted down at him.

However, there was no splashing sound this time. Instead, a voice rose up to them. "I swear that statement could have been interpreted as a pun," Gene called from below them. Everyone went over and peered down to see what had happened to him.

"If you hang onto the edge, even a Final Smash can't hit you for a few seconds. Also, I have a first-class view of your skirts."

Everyone squealed and pulled down their skirts, and Gene appeared behind them with Negi, laughing his head off. This time, all the girls looked at him with pure hatred.

"Oh God, I don't think five seconds of immunity will save us-" Gene began to say before-.

(The next five minutes consists of unpublishable violence and profanity. Therefore, we'll end this chapter and volume here and now.)

[Hey, who gave you the right to end the chapter; I've been wondering about that since Chapter 2.]

(That's my secret.)

[*sigh. Anyways that's it for this chapter. Next time, we'll be back outside of Evangeline's dome and in Mahora School. Also, expect more character introductions. We might even be able to see Negi do magic.]


	3. Finally, Some Action

****Spoiler Alert**

**The material in this volume shows concepts and spells from recent chapters of Negima. If you haven't caught up with the manga yet, I suggest you all catch up so that nothing is ruined… Well, as far as I know, there aren't any spoilers on the plot yet. **

**[Hello, hello. I have to say that this is quite a hilarious volume to make. Hopefully you'll get most of the references. I swear I referenced at least ten other works with this. No worries, most of these crossovers won't appear again…Hopefully.]**

**(Just get on with it.)**

**[Spoilsport.]**

**Sometimes, You Have to Wonder How Your School Spends its Money**

Gene woke up to the sound of his alarm. He hit the off button and stretched his arms. When his eyes focused, he saw Asuna who was just pulling off her shirt. Sensing someone watching her, she turned around and saw Gene sleepily looking at her.

Asuna screamed, waking up everyone in the room and the surrounding rooms, and punched Gene into the wall. She quickly finished changing before anyone else could look up.

"Could you please go a day without hitting me?" Gene asked when he pulled himself back up, "It really hurts to be punched by a wild monkey."

Asuna was about to punch him again when Konoka looked at her clock and exclaimed, "Asuna-chan, you'll be late to work."

Asuna ran out, only pausing to grab some toast she had put in the oven earlier.

After class, Gene was teaching the Baka Rangers in another study session. For some reason, the day had gone by normally, for once. Gene was about to believe that he finally had had a completely normal day when Evangeline and Chachamaru came by.

Gene sighed and addressed the vampire and the gynoid, "What do you want? You can't possibly be here to ask for the homework you missed. You could have had the robot girl download it off the website I post them on."

Evangeline haughtily laughed at him, "As if I would have any interest in you. No, I am only here to remind the idiots here that they need to come to my house today."

"I don't see how you could be their training master at all. You're short, grumpy, abusive, and lazy in your regimen," Gene replied.

Eva grabbed his collar and began strangling him. "What did you just say to me?" she shouted at him as she throttled his neck.

"How can I reply if you're choking the life out of me?" Gene wheezed out.

A loud rumbling distracted Eva long enough for Gene to pull herself out of her grip. As Gene panted to bring the air back into his lungs, Eva, Negi, and the Baka Rangers looked outside to see what was going on.

Outside, there was a gigantic robot marching across the school. It was orange in general and was humanoid in structure. Its body was extremely streamlined except for two large compartments which stood like bony appendages above its shoulders. There was only one eye and a large orb on the top of its head but no mouth. Below it were some technicians, frantically trying to stop it with remote-controls. "Damnit!" one of them shouted, "It's not responding to the emergency-shut-off switch."

"What's going on?" Negi shouted at them.

"The robot our school just purchased is going wild. It's not stopping at all. So far, it's only destroyed the lab we were building it in, but if it goes on, it might enter the city."

"Wait a minute," Gene said after looking at the robot, "Where did our school get the money to buy that giant mecha?"

Gene's comment got the others' brains thinking.

"Come to think of it," Asuna added, "They have the money to buy this expensive mecha, but don't have the money to buy us new computers."

"What are you talking about?" Gene inquired.

"The computers in the student computer labs are old Macs from 1995," Chachamaru mechanically stated.

"I see your point," Gene replied and thought for a few seconds.

"Hey!" one of the technicians called out, "Can you please help us stop it. I mean, you guys should be able to."

"Watch out!" one of the technicians called out as the robot turned its head and looked down at the technicians. Its eye glowed and shot a beam around the robot. When the smoke cleared, the technicians were all unconscious on the ground.

"Well," Eva said and turned around, "I don't feel like stopping it. Boya, you and your friends stop it."

"But master," Negi protested, "People might see us."

Eva sighed and motioned to Chachamaru, "Lock down the school and say it's an emergency."

"Yes, master." Chachamaru walked to a nearby terminal and seemed to wirelessly connect to it. After only a few seconds, bars and reinforced panels dropped across every window except for the window where Gene and the others were.

"There is an emergency, and the school will now be on lockdown," a voice called over the PA, "Please, do not leave your classrooms until it is safe to go out."

"Alright boya," Eva said, "Now you and your friends can stop that robot. Don't worry, it'll be good training for you."

Negi, Asuna, Kaede, and Ku-Fei crashed through the window and ran towards the mecha. Gene looked at Chachamaru and remarked, "Either that girl really is an advanced A.I. android, or she is a girl who really likes to cosplay and is good at hacking."

"Shut up and join them," Eva sighed, "I would rate that thing on a dungeon final boss level, so they might need a little help."

Outside, Asuna and Kaede were distracting the robot while Negi stood in front of it and began chanting a spell.

"_Raz Tel Ma Scir Magister, Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"_

Negi extended his hand, and a large horizontal tornado came out and smashed into the robot's chest. It stepped back a few feet; however, other than a dent in its chest area, it was completely fine.

Gene was watching all this in the air above the school upside down. He noticed someone else watching the scene as well and turned around. The school dean was walking in midair and stood right beside him.

"Why did you build a mecha which can withstand a high-level spell and move like that? Not even that, where the hell did you get the money to build this?" Gene asked him.

The dean stroked his beard but didn't reply; whether he was purposely ignoring Gene or really couldn't hear him, he did not know. Meanwhile, Negi, Asuna, Kaede, and Ku Fei were dancing around the robot, trying to pierce through its defenses.

"Stop its movements for just a bit," Negi called to the others, "Then I'll be able to stop it."

Kaede made a hand signal and created a bunch of clones. They all began climbing on the robot, leaving trails of wire behind them. The clones all then jumped away and pulled their wires. The mecha momentarily stumbled but shot another laser through the wires.

The mecha moved on and saw Asuna trying to distract its attention. It pulled back its fist and brought it down on Asuna. Before the fist could reach her, it stopped. Ku Fei had stopped it with both of her fists. She slammed her back foot into the ground and groaned with the effort.

"Haaa!" she groaned and pushed the robot back. It stumbled and shot a laser at her. Asuna jumped in front of her, and her harisen turned into a long sword with a cloth wrapped handle and a guard that was actually part of the blade and curved in front of the grip. The blade deflected, no, dissipated the laser beam.

Gene whistled, "Magic Cancel, a ninja, and a girl who is pretty strong in kung fu. That's quite a class Negi's got there."

The dean stroked his beard, "But they still need some help, don't they? Hoho, they're still kids after all."

"Alright, alright, you old fart, I'll help them. Just stop making me feel guilty," Gene sighed and stood upright again. He stood over the robot and slammed his hand downwards. The ground around the robot cracked, and it was forced on its knees by some unseen force.

"If you're going to do anything, Negi, do it now," Gene called out to him, "You have about 30 seconds."

Negi nodded and began incanting, "_Raz Tel Ma Scir Magister, Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!_"

Negi waved his arm as if in a throwing motion, and a large bolt of lightning appeared from his hands and flew towards the mecha. It met with a resounding crash with many other lightning bolts.

When the dust cleared, the robot was lying on the ground. Parts of it had even flown across the campus.

Gene went to what appeared to be the back of the robot where a capsule had been ejected. He read the label on the capsule: Eva Unit 00X.

"Funny," he thought and twisted two handlebars on the outside of the capsule. A compartment slid open, revealing nothing at all inside. "Why do I feel like I've seen something like this before?"

Meanwhile, the dean was walking across the field and saw a piece of the mecha which was still recognizable. He inspected it and determined that it was part of the robot's chest plate, the part which had received two direct hits from Negi's powerful spells.

He stroked his beard and mused, "Amazing, to think that such a piece would be still intact. Who oversaw the buying of such magically-resistant parts? I did not authorize the building of such a hard exterior."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking," said a voice behind him. The dean turned around and saw Eva with Chachamaru behind her.

Chachamaru examined the chest plate and examined it. "Master," she finally said, "The material of this metal is something I've never seen before. My databanks cannot identify the composition."

"And so the mystery deepens," Gene said above them, out of view, "Wait a minute. Where did they get the money to buy such super-advanced materials? I swear that they wouldn't sell those cheap on eBay."

(Geez, it's been a while since we've talked, hasn't it.)

[I thought we decided to stop interrupting the story.]

(Yeah, but if we do that, our fans might miss us.)

[You. Have fans. Ha! That's a laugh.]

(Just shut up. Next chapter, we see how everyone is compared to everyone else.)

[One: when did we start saying what would happen in the next chapter. And two: that is a very bad preview of what's going to happen next.]

**All vs. One. What a Horrible Matchup**

"Alright everyone," Eva barked at them. Everyone in Gene's room, Setsuna, Ku Fei, Kaede, Nodoka, Yue, Kazumi, and Sayo were in Eva's dome. Eva had invited them over for, as she called it, a progress report.

"Let's see. Ah yes, the boya." Eva grabbed Negi and slammed him to the ground. She began stomping on him and lecturing him at the same time, "What was that wimpy performance the other day. You got stronger in the magic world; it's as if you've already forgotten what you've learned. No, even worse, you've lost some of your skill after coming back. What's wrong with you?"

"Master" Negi groaned, "I was busy with Gene coming over and teaching, you know."

"THAT"S NOT A VALID EXCUSE!" she shouted at him and kicked him off the platform. Negi scrambled at the edge for a few seconds before falling down towards the water below.

Ignoring Negi, who used his staff to fly back up, Eva addressed the others, "To give you all a dose of training and to force the new teacher to show his abilities, I'm proposing that all of you fight him."

"Eh!" everyone exclaimed, including Gene, "But that's so unfair."

"Eva," Gene said with an exasperated, anime-style, face, "You're such a sadist."

"Shut up and get ready everyone," Eva shouted, "Everyone meet back here in ten minutes."

"Man, that was really sudden for Eva to do that," Gene complained, "She's really lazy too. Why couldn't she fight you all by herself instead of using me as her guinea pig?"

Sayo hovered hesitantly at the door until Gene looked at her. "Don't worry," he smiled, "I'm sure no one will get hurt or anything."

He put on a long-sleeved robe which covered his arms and hands. After inspecting himself, he practiced a series of martial arts moves. "Good," he thought, "I'm not that out of shape."

"Ready," Eva shouted at them.

"Wait."

A boy with dark hair and attire appeared on the magic circle and ran to them. On a closer look, he had dog ears sticking out of his hair and a tail.

He then pointed to himself and introduced himself to Gene, "I'm Inugami Kotarou. Nice to meet you."

"Good," Eva said, "You're just in time for the practice battle."

"Really?"

"Yes, it'll be all of you weirdoes against Gene here."

"Aww, that won't be fun," Kotarou complained.

"Don't groan pup," Eva said with a dark expression, "Unless you want to find yourself in a can of frozen dog food."

"I really don't feel like doing this," Negi said. Konoka, Nodoka, Yue, Kazumi, and Sayo were sitting out of the match because of lack of offensive capabilities. Negi, Asuna, Kaede, Ku Fei, Setsuna, and Kotarou were facing Gene on the wide expanse of the courtyard in Eva's villa. Eva would be the judge of the match.

"Alright, there are no boundaries in this battle. No killing… if you can help it. All weapons and spells allowed. Ready…"

"That damn sadist. Nothing like the sparkly vampires in modern fiction," Gene muttered under his breath.

"..GO!"

Kotarou went first as he approached Gene in a flash with _shundo_. He slashed upward but met empty air; Gene lightly stepped on his arm and remarked, "Making the first move does give you the advantage, but if you're too obvious, you won't do much except hinder your teammates."

Kotarou extended his other arm behind him, and Ku Fei landed on top of it. She thrust her fist forward and propelled Gene into the air and into the wall of the stadium.

"Did I get him, aru?" she asked, but the dust blew away, revealing Gene who had crossed his hands over his face in a block.

"Hoi!" Kaede became four and began throwing a multitude of ninja weapons at him.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" Gene said as he sidestepped each and every projectile, "That's dangerous."

Setsuna appeared behind him and said, "_Shinmeiryu ougi, Zantetsusen_."

She slashed her sword and sent a spiral wave of ki at Gene. However, he had disappeared from the spot where she fired.

"Geez," he said from the top of the stadium, "You're all so serious."

"After him," Asuna cried, and everyone jumped out of the stadium.

"Negi, get your spells ready. We might need them," Asuna told Negi in the forest which was behind Eva's villa, "We'll keep him away from you."

"Oh really?" Gene had appeared right beside them. Asuna screamed in surprise and instinctively hit him. He reeled back but stood back up. "Damn it," he said, trying to cover his bloody nose, "Don't hit me so suddenly."

Asuna took out a card and said "_Adeat_", and it turned into a long sword with no hilt wrapped in cloth and a guard which only continued the blade's edge. She then stood protectively in front of Negi. After looking at each other for a few seconds, Asuna lunged forward with her sword. Gene backed up, but Asuna kept pushing.

She slashed and cut; however, she could not land a hit on him. She had forced him out of the forest and near the beach when Ku Fei and Kotarou appeared behind Gene.

"_Bakurestu Shunkei!_"

"_Kuon Baku Saiken!_"

Kotarou and Ku Fei both hit Gene at the same time. Asuna leapt out of the way as the force of their combined attacks was even felt from behind him. The dust cleared, revealing that both of them had hit a sand clone. The sand behind them trembled and burst open, and Gene leapt out with a sphere of swirling energy in each hand.

"_Ra***rengan!_" Ku Fei and Kotarou were both unable to move because their hands were stuck in the sand clone as Gene hit both of them.

Ku Fei and Kotarou both jumped out, a bit damaged but still able to continue.

"Nice one. You were both able to pull yourselves free at the last second," Gene remarked and spat out some sand from his mouth.

Four Kaede's appeared around him and began fighting Gene hand-to-hand. He ducked all of them, did a handstand, and spun around, kicking away all the Kaede clones. The clones pulled wires in their hands and immobilized Gene's body.

"Now!" Kaede shouted. Setsuna came down at a blurring speed; her blade, _Yunagi_, crackled with lighting.

When Setsuna landed, she slashed down and used her technique, "_Shinmeiryu ougi, Kyokudai Raimeiken_."

A larger electrical explosion than her _Raimeiken_ hit Gene directly. Setsuna landed beside Kaede and the others.

"Did we win?" Setsuna asked. Gene emerged from the smoke, his robes were in tatters. "I guess not."

"Ouch, I guess I might need to get serious if I really want to win this one, don't I," Gene said and lifted up his pant legs, revealing bags of weights strapped around his legs. He pulled off both of them and rummaged around them. He then pulled out two long, black rods and fit them together. The rest, he casually threw to the side, creating another min-earthquake in the sand.

Everyone else tensed; however, Gene had already disappeared. He appeared behind Ku Fei first.

"Aru?" she said before she was knocked out.

"Ku-chan!" Asuna shouted and then looked at Gene, "You."

Kaede and Setsuna both jumped away as Asuna slashed with her blade. Gene caught it with on of his staffs and then pointed around her. Surrounding her, Setsuna, and Kaede were four Gene's in a circle. The Gene in front of Asuna disappeared. The Gene clones raised their hands and brought them to the ground; a magic circled appeared around them, and the air began to rumble.

"_Graviton Impact_!" Gene shouted, and the ground in the circle collapsed because of the immense increase of gravity in the area. Everyone felt the increase of gravity except for Asuna, but she lost her balance and fell down as well. The sand began rolling over and began burying them under. When the spell was done, there was no trace of the other girls.

"Did I overdo it?" Gene wondered when Negi appeared in the clearing. He looked around for the others. "Where are they," he asked Gene, almost accusingly.

"Down," Gene replied and pointed to the sand behind him.

Negi's eyes seemed to widen as he understood what Gene had said. He grimly raised his hand and said, "_Dextra Emissa Stagnet, Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε_!"

The air around his hand seemed to warp, and a giant ball of lightning energy appeared above his palm and contracted into a ball. He closed his hand around it, absorbing it, "_Complexio. Supplementum pro Armationem, __He Astrape Hyper Ouranou Mega Dynamene."_ Negi's body began to glow as the very fibers of his body began to become lightning. He approached Gene and said, "I can't hold back now. You hurt my students."

Negi was suddenly in front of Gene with his fist already in the other's face. Gene was punched backwards and was hit in the back by Negi again. "Nice," Gene thought and disappeared as well.

"Without my weights," Gene taunted, "I can keep up with you."

They both began a battle at superhuman speeds. Although Negi was faster, Gene had more control and maneuverability. In addition, Gene had already seen through Negi's weaknesses.

After fighting for a while, Gene caught Negi's fist and punched him in the stomach. Negi fell and crashed into the ground. Gene flew down and was about to deliver the finishing blow when the sand bulged up and burst.

In the cloud, five figures could be seen. Something blew away the cloud, revealing Setsuna with large, white wings on her back. Asuna and the others were sheltered underneath them.

They all looked at Gene and charged. Setsuna pulled out a card waved her other arm in an arc in front of her. "_Adeat, Sica Shishikushiro_." Sixteen _wakizashi_ appeared and flew towards Gene. Gene jumped back and saw that the _wakizashi_ had landed around him. Setsuna made a hand seal, and the _wakizashi_ began glowing with electricity.

"_Inatsuburi no Katama_."

A web of lightning appeared around Gene, trapping him within. Gene shrugged and brought both of his hands down. The web dissipated, but Kaede and Ku Fei were next to him. Kaede lashed out with her hand, which held a large ball of fire. Ku Fei palmed Gene in the chest.

Gene flew back and landed hard on a tree trunk. As he collapsed to the ground, everyone acted.

Negi panted and addressed the others, "Forget about knocking him out, we can't hold back if we want to win."

"_Dextra Emittam, __Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens_!" Negi shot his Jupiter Tempest.

"_Shinmeiryu Kessen Ougi, Shin Raikoken_!" Setsuna slashed her sword and shot a gigantic wave of lightning, bigger than any she had used before.

"_Kaede Ninpo, Bakusabakuenjin!"_ Kaede threw a giant shuriken with a chain attached to it. Paper, explosive charms fluttered among the chain links.

"_Adeat, __Shinchintetsu Jizaikon, _aru." Ku Fei pulled out a long, black staff with two iron clasps at the ends. She extended one end which also grew extremely big, towards Gene.

As all their attacks were going to meet him, Gene sighed. "I really didn't want to do this. It's such a bother to use purification."

He held his arms out in front of him, and the air around his hands and back began to glow. The attacks blocked out what happened next.

"_Mu-Mu-M**-Yaku-Mu!_" Gene shouted.

Before any of the attacks could reach them, they disappeared. Kaede's shuriken and chain flew past Gene and slammed uselessly into the tree behind him; the paper charms fluttered away.

"Aww man," Asuna groaned, "That was so cheap."

Gene emerged with armor across his back. There was a hexagonal plate on his left arm with more hexagonal plates connected to each other across his back. When the plates reached the back of his right shoulder, there was a long plate of armor, with a pure-white cape billowing behind it, connected to an even larger, circular piece with a star tree inscribed on it. That piece then connected to a claw, which was semi-detached from his right hand and held a large, yet thin blade.

"Let's go," he whispered and disappeared, even quicker than before. Negi absorbed another Thousand Bolts, but Gene was already behind Ku Fei.

"Aru?" she said and was about to turn around when Gene's sword moved. He hit her hard enough to send her rolling over, and she stayed down, knocked out.

"Ku Fei!" Setsuna shouted and jumped up, unfurling her wings. She held her _nodachi_ in her right hand and grabbed one of her _wakizashi_ with her left. Her other _wakizashi_ circled around her, ready to attack. Gene jumped up and began attacking her. She tried fending him off, but he easily knocked away her blades.

Gene moved his left hand in the air to create a triangle of light, "_Shi**tsu Sansen_," he whispered. From each tip of the triangle came out a beam of light which pinned Setsuna's arms and legs. Gene slashed Setsuna with the back of the blade, and she fell as well.

Asuna jumped and slammed down her sword. Gene intercepted it with his blade, and their weapons met with a clang. "Now, Kotarou!" Asuna called out, and Gene looked behind him in surprise. However, there was no one behind him. He looked forward and saw that Asuna had gone down, and Negi was coming towards him. "_Dextra Emittam, Sagitta Magica Series Fulguralis,_" Negi said, and the lightning arrows compressed themselves around his palm. "_Raika Houken!"_ He punched forward and knocked Gene to the ground. However, he had blocked Negi's attack with his blade.

Kotarou went forward, and they began fighting again.

"Carriage of thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six," Gene incanted under his breath. He then pointed his finger at Kotarou. "_Ri****koro_." Six, thin beams of light landed around Kotarou's midriff and stopped his movements.

Gene then clapped his hands together and said, "_To***sho_!" creating an upside-down, blue pyramid barrier around him and Kotarou. Negi, Asuna, and Kaede were trying to break in, but the pyramid held.

Gene then held his hand to Kotarou's chest. "_Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens. Souten So***sui_," he said. Two large tongues of blue fire came out of his hand and hit Kotarou point-blank.

The pyramid disappeared, and Kotarou collapsed onto the ground. Gene turned around. "Three down."

**Some People Are Just Born with All the Cheat Codes**

"Damn," Asuna growled, "He took out three of us so easily."

Gene charged forward, and Asuna parried with her sword. She gritted her teeth and pushed harder. "Why isn't it breaking?" she wondered, "My Magic Cancel should have cut through his blade already."

Kaede threw some kunai, and Gene stepped back to dodge. Negi stepped forward and began fighting Gene again. Asuna and Kaede, along with some clones, joined in as well.

Gene kicked them back and then held out his sword towards his side, pointed straight in front of him. He held his blade with both hands as if holding some giant cannon and said, "Change form, Hawk Mode."

The armor plates snaked off his left arm and back and snapped with the rest of the armor to form a straight line along his right arm, stretching far behind his shoulder. The claw attached itself to the hilt of the blade, creating a completely straight line. The blade split into three, the middle strip and the edges; the middle section extended forward, and the edges closed behind it, creating a much longer, but thinner, blade. Two wings of energy grew out from the hilt of the sword.

"Dodge this," he warned, "I'm not sure how lethal this can be."

His entire body and the armor shuddered, and a blur came out along the length of his armor. Negi and the others felt the air between them rush past them, but were not hit. They looked behind them and saw that there was a pathway all the way across the forest and into the sea. Even the water was still lapping away from the path.

"Ooh," Gene marveled, "It's stronger than I thought. Let's try that again."

This time, he aimed carefully before firing. Asuna held her sword, blade flat, in front of her. Although she deflected the tip, the force of his attack knocked her back. "Oww," she groaned on the ground as Gene aimed again.

Kaede and Kotarou jumped in front of her and held their hands out. They formed a joint-ki barrier before Gene fired again. Negi appeared behind Gene and held his hand on the other's back.

"_Emittam, Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens_." Negi's Jupiter Tempest came out as Gene's armor reverted back to its original form to block most of Negi's attack.

_Damn_, he swore, _He can mold the shape of his armor as fast as thought. Truly fearsome._

_Wow_, Gene was thinking, _I swear that I shouldn't be winning this easily. Maybe it's because I'm a main character of a story. Hey, maybe this is a- eeeeh~ what was I thinking again?_

(Hey, what's that gun which you're holding that's smoking as I'm speaking.)

[Oh finally, we get some time to talk.]

(Don't avoid the question. What did you just do?)

[I just protected our identities from being revealed. If any character figures out that this is all just a story, we'll be forced to come out and rewrite the story. To avoid such a tedious procedure, we, authors, were given a special gun which makes any character, who is about to figure out about our existence or is about to say anything regarding it, momentarily go blank and forget about it.]

(*sigh. What are the side effects?)

[Mild fever, blank mind, very rarely, some brain cell loss. But so far, nothing serious has shown up.]

(You mean that no one's actually fully tested it and figured out the side effects. What if one of the characters has an adverse reaction to it?)

[Shut up. You're beginning to sound like American red tape. Just be glad we protected the secret to our existence.]

Negi saw Gene suddenly wobble around and took the opening. "_Raz Tel Ma Scir Magister, Centoum Eto Veniant Spritus Lucis, Sagitta Magica Series Lucis_." Negi gathered all the magical arrows on his hand and punched Gene's stomach. Negi then released the magic arrows. "_Ouka Houken!_"

Negi's attack propelled Gene though some trees, all the way through the forest, and into a pillar in Eva's villa. He crashed though Eva's villa and came out the other side; he continued flying through and bounced on the water before sinking.

"Negi, are you sure you didn't kill him, de gozaru?" Kaede asked.

"I don't think so," Negi replied, "Let's check."

Negi got on his staff and flew to where Gene had landed. Kaede jumped there as well. Asuna was left behind to take everyone who had been knocked out to where everyone else was waiting.

Negi arrived at where Gene landed first. Instead of being damaged at all, he was completely fine and sitting on top of the water, as casual as can be. Gene looked at Kaede and Negi.

"Took you guys long enough," he said.

"Whew, you're all right," Negi sighed in relief.

"One problem," Gene said, "I can't move."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that even though I'm not really damaged, staying on top of the water is taking up all of my remaining strength."

"What?"

"I kinda overdid it while fighting you guys so I don't have that much energy left. It's like after you fight through a 99 story, boss-level dungeon, and you find that you still have to fight the final boss of the dungeon. Quite exhausting, I tell you. I guess I still need some training for extended battles."

Gene shuddered and began sinking. "Oh crap."

Negi floated down and grabbed Gene's hand. He hefted the other teacher back up and flew back to Eva's villa.

When they lighted down, Konoka went up to them both, wearing a yukata and holding a fan in each hand now, and waved her fan at both of them. They winced as all of their wounds began to heal.

"Done now," Konoka said cheerfully, "Everyone's healed."

Eva walked up to them, arms crossed. She looked at Negi and then saw Gene, who was snoozing right there. A vein twitched in her forehead, and she walked up to him and stomped her foot between his legs.

"WAKE UP!" she shouted at him, "and don't ignore me. We still aren't finished yet!"

Gene screamed in pain and was awake immediately. "There are better ways of waking people up!" he shouted back at Eva.

"Stop it, Eva," Asuna called out to him, "We all need a break."

"Wow, Asuna, for once, you're actually kind and thoughtful," Gene said.

"Shut up!" Asuna shouted and threw her harisen at him. It contacted with his chin and sent him rolling away.

Setsuna, Ku Fei, and Kotarou also walked out. Setsuna had a minor bruise across her stomach, but was otherwise alright, Ku Fei had some bandages wrapped around her head, and Kotarou had his arm in a cast, and his shirt was badly burned.

Gene stood up and bowed at them. "Sorry for your injuries," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it." They all waved away his apologies and replied that such injuries were not very serious compared to what they went through with Evangeline's training.

Gene then looked at Eva. "Yup, you _are_ a very sadistic vampire. More like the classic vampires instead of the sparkly vampires of modern fiction."

This time, two veins twitched in Eva's forehead. "I'm a 500 year old, shinso vampire," she shuddered in anger, "Feel my wrath!"

She grabbed Gene by the neck and threw him up into the air. She then snapped her fingers, and the air around Gene was turned into a giant block of ice. He fell down and thudded on the ground right behind Eva.

"Kya!" Konoka screamed in worry, and everyone went to try breaking him out of the ice block.

After five minutes of hammering, they succeeded in chipping the ice off. Gene fell his hands and panted hard. "God," he finally said, "I thought I was going to die there. Death by freezing in a block of ice is not my choice of death."

"Ha," Eva said arrogantly, "Then do not cross me." She turned around. "Spend the rest of the day as you see fit." She walked off into her villa.

Gene collapsed on the spot. Everyone moved to help him, but they heard the soft sounds of snoring and decided to lift him up into one of the many rooms in Eva's villa. For the rest of the day, they sat in front of a holographic display and observed the practice battle between them.

[I just wanted to thank , and everyone who makes those pages, for helping me on everything here. For those who don't know what Wikia is, it's a website which has categories for many subjects. In these categories, there is very specific information supplied by fans. For example, in the Negima Wikia, there is information about spells including the incantations in the ancient language it's in and also has an English translation. There are Wikias for every popular manga, look it up. That's where I got a lot of material used especially in the last two chapters.]

(Next chapter-)

[Hey! Don't spoil what's going to happen in the next chapter. Let them see for themselves.]

**Using Forks as Weapons is a Ridiculous Concept**

Gene was woken up by a vibration in his pocket. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. After groggily fishing around for a few seconds, he pulled out his iPhone; after turning off his alarm, he looked at the time: 8 am.

_Why do I feel like I shouldn't even be awake by now? _he wondered and looked at the calendar. It was Saturday.

Since it was the weekend, he decided to sleep some more and fell back down.

Just as he was going back down, the window was shattered by an object moving in a blur. It went straight towards Gene's bed and dug itself into the closet behind his bed. The tip quivered right where his head had been.

The noise of the window breaking woke up everyone in the room; Gene sat back up and bumped his head on the object on the wall. While rubbing his head, he pulled out the object which had woken all of them up. It was an oversized fork; however, the prongs were razor sharp.

_Reminds me of the college wake-up calls I used to get from the pranksters at MIT,_ Gene thought as he massaged his head.

A shadow covered the room, and everyone looked at the window. Standing outside was a dark, cloaked figured. The face was covered by a hood. The figure scanned the room until reaching Gene.

"So this is where you are," said a surprisingly feminine voice, albeit with a Kansai accent. At first, her voice was kind, but upon seeing Asuna and Konoka, her voice took on a sharper tone.

"I come all the way here to Japan, and when I see you, you've already started dating with not one, but two girls!" she shouted at him.

"Why is everyone thinking the worst of me?" Gene complained.

"Shut up!" she screamed and threw another fork at him. This time, he ducked in time so that it only shaved off the tip of his hair.

"What's going on?" Negi asked sleepily.

"ANIKI!" shouted someone from behind the new girl. A white ermine jumped into the room and ran into Negi's arms.

"Chamo-kun. When you didn't come back from your vacation as you promised, we worried so much about you."

"Vacation?" the girl interrupted, "I caught him sniffing the clothes on my clothesline. I don't think he was on vacation."

"Aniki, she's so scary. She nearly impaled me with a steak knife and a lot of sharp forks. I think I've been emotionally scarred when it comes to forks," Chamo pleaded, "Save me!"

"Wait a minute," Asuna interrupted, "Who the hell are you?"

"He knows," she turned to Gene who was looking at her carefully.

"…Umm, have we met before?" Gene asked. The hooded girl nearly fell off the ledge she was standing on in shock.

After regaining her balance, she tore off her hood, revealing crimson-red hair and a face which would have turned a lot of male heads in public. She obviously had heterochromia since her left eye was red and her right eye was blue.

"Now do you recognize me?" she asked.

Gene looked at her again; this time, a glint of recognization appeared on his face. "So," he finally answered, "What's your name in this world?"

"Priscilla Dämon," she replied.

"Hmm, too hard to translate into Japanese, let's change it to…Ayanami," Gene offered.

"Why?"

"Just for the easier transition, and because it's the name of a character from an anime I saw a while ago."

"Hold on," Asuna shouted, interrupting their conversation, "What's this conversation about? You guys aren't making any sense whatsoever."

"That's the point," both of them replied at the same time.

While Asuna and Konoka were wondering about what the conversation was about, Negi was still trying to calm down Chamo, who gave shudder and ran back under Negi's laptop whenever he came out to see if Priscilla had left.

"Why have you stalked me all the way to Japan?" Gene asked, as if expecting her answer, "I don't think you're supposed to be even close to this world."

"Simple, you haven't been writing anything in your journal, so I was getting worried. You don't even know how boring it is to stay in the shop for years without a single customer. That's why I decided to go the world where you were."

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Everyone stopped talking and looked at Priscilla. Gene grabbed her and tried forcing her into his closet.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she protested.

"Shut up. The mess you made is enough to be considered suspicious. If you're seen here, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, you might go to jail," Gene hissed at her, "You can't break cover."

Seeing his point, Priscilla crawled into Gene's closet and shut the door behind her just as the dorm's door opened up. Yue entered the room, and Nodoka shyly followed. When they saw the broken glass on the ground, they both stopped.

"What happened here?" Yue asked.

"Umm…Nothing, nothing at all," Gene stammered out, trying to think of an excuse.

However, it seemed that Yue had come to their room for a reason and was not to be sidetracked. "Sensei," she began and looked at Gene in the eye, "When you fought that practice battle yesterday, I noticed a few things that made me suspicious."

"Like what?" Gene asked nervously.

"Well, for one, why do you have so many amazing skills? If your past is as you have told us, then you should not have had the time to train yourself and keep up with your schoolwork at the same time. In fact, when I think about it, your story about you being an MIT graduate seems to contradict your story about being a dimension traveler. In fact, I'm wondering if one of your stories about your life is false. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if both of them were lies."

"You're quite perceptive, aren't you?" Gene finally said when Yue finished. He then looked outside. "Let's have everyone here listen to my story. Come out, Sayo."

A transparent head peeked out from behind the tree outside of the window, and Sayo floated into the room, looking like a child who had been caught peeking.

"Sit down." Gene patted a spot right next to him. Sayo seemed to blush at the idea but floated down.

"As for your question, both of my explanations are true."

"What?"

"I said what I said; I am a dimension traveler, and I do have a genuine past in this world since day one."

"Okay…Maybe my next question will clarify. How do you get around worlds? If you are a dimension traveler, you should have some way of getting around."

"Simple, reincarnation," Gene replied with a straight face.

"What?" everyone exclaimed, "You're joking."

"Of course not. In order to move across worlds, I am reborn without any memories of my previous existences. Therefore, as I grow and live in each world, my existence naturally blends into the timeline, preventing any disturbances in the time-space continuums. When I reach the age of fourteen, I gain the memories and abilities of my past reincarnations; that's why I know so much. However, I've had to train my body to be able to use every power of my previous selves. And I'll tell you, some lives have been boring while some have become some of the most powerful fighters of their times."

"So is your intelligence a result from gaining the memories of your past selves?" Yue asked.

"No, I entered MIT at the age of twelve. My record is the result of my effort and my efforts alone. But the additional memories didn't hurt."

The doors of Gene's closet burst open, and Priscilla stumbled out, gasping for air.

"You won't believe how stuffy it is in there," she panted before looking at Yue and Nodoka. "Oh."

Gene stood up and began waving his hands in front of him. "I can explain this. Just listen."

Nodoka held her hand up to her mouth, "So sensei is…"

"For the love of Christ!" Gene cut her off and stood up, "Stop assuming the worst of me already!"

Everyone backed away in surprise. When he realized he was standing and shouting at his students, he sat back down and apologized.

"Priscilla here," he pointed at her, "is going to be a transfer student. She's from America and supposedly learned her Japanese from a Kansai-born friend."

"Wow, two people from America," Konoka beamed.

"Now, let's eat breakfast," Gene clapped his hands, as if dictating the end of the conversation.

Priscilla pulled a harisen out of nowhere and smacked Gene on the head. "What about my application to this school?" she shouted at him, "Don't just ignore me and say 'let's eat breakfast'. We're going straight to the dean's office to get myself transferred into this school."

_Great,_ Gene thought, _Now I have two harisen-wielding maniacs after my neck_.

**Manzai and Kansai Accents Go Well Together**

"WHAT?" Priscilla cried out and slammed her hands on the dean's desk, "What do you mean I can't move in with Gene?"

"Well," the dean said as he stroked his beard, "The room you've asked for doesn't have any space for one more person."

Priscilla pulled out a harisen and was about to slap the dean on the head when Gene grabbed her wrist. He then pulled the harisen from her grasp with his other hand.

"Please don't hit the dean," Gene said and released her hand.

She pouted and sat back down. "Then where will I stay?"

The dean looked at the dorm assignments. After scanning though it, he found a room, "You can stay in with Setsuna Sakurazaki. Her room has enough space for one more person."

Priscilla sighed. "Fine, I'll move in there."

She snatched the room assignment and key from the dean and stomped out of the room. As Gene and Negi followed her out, the dean asked Gene, "So, how do you like my granddaughter Konoka? Don't you think she'd be a good wife?"

Gene made many movements to try warning the dean to stop talking, but it was too late. Priscilla came running back in with another harisen. "Y-Y-you…" she stammered out in anger and slapped Gene with it. Gene was hit back, rolled over the dean's desk, and narrowly missed the dean's head as he broke through the window behind him. He seemed to float in the air for a few seconds before falling.

"JERK!" she screamed down at him.

(I swear. She takes being the tsukkomi to a whole new level.)

[Yeah, tell me about it.]

"Ouch," Gene cried out when Konoka was dabbing rubbing alcohol on his head. Although there were no glass fragments in his hair, he had fallen from about three stories from the dean's office.

Priscilla sat down and looked away from him. They were back in the main characters' dorm room after Priscilla had already unpacked her things in her dorm room. However, she hadn't spoken to Gene since shouting at him after slapping him out of the dean's office.

Meanwhile, Negi was in his area with Chamo, looking over the class notes for tomorrow. Asuna came up with some tea and felt something was amiss. She took a sniff at Negi's hair. "You haven't taken a bath in a while, haven't you," she said. Negi turned around in surprise and tried to turn back around.

However, Asuna saw through him. She grabbed him by his collar and began dragging him off. "No excuses," she ordered when he protested, "You stink."

Gene held his hand on his forehead, "That lucky kid."

The bath area was very spacious and was more like a luxury spa. Asuna pulled off Negi's clothes and threw him into the water. As he surfaced, he gasped for air and then saw Asuna with some soap and a towel.

He immediately began trying to swim away, but because he couldn't swim well, Asuna caught up to him. She forced him down and began washing him.

"Asuna-a, I can wash myself," Negi complained.

"Yeah right. I know you won't take a bath if you can avoid it," Asuna barked back at him.

Gene looked down at them from the roof. Because there was a window above the bath area, it was possible for someone up there to look down. "They get along so well," he said and laughed as Negi broke free of Asuna's grip and tried running away from her.

A figure, hidden by the darkness, snuck up behind him and hit his head with a harisen. His head banged on the window, and he stood up, rubbing the back of his head.

He turned around and saw Priscilla, patting her harisen and wearing a very strained smile on her face. "What's this?" she said, "Have you really gone as low as to peek on other girls?"

"No, why do you seem so angry? It's not like we're going out or something. In fact, I personally have never met you before. I just recognize you from my memories. So there's practically nothing between us."

A vein twitched in her temple, and her voice began to shake in anger. "So," she said, drawing out that word, "You think that just because you haven't been under my watchful eyes for over 16 years that you consider it okay to look for other girls."

"Why not?"

Now, she began to loom over him, and Gene realized that her hand which held the harisen was shaking badly. A cold sense of dread began to go through his body as he realized what he had said.

"Umm, you know," he stalled, "In manzai, the tsukkomi is supposed to hit the bokke with the harisen after the bokke says a pun."

"That's a good idea," she said with a smile, but this time, it was easy to see that it was forced.

"But I'm not an idiot," Gene said with a straight face, "So I'm not technically the bokke character in this comedy sce- ehhh~"

(Why did you hit him with that again?)

[Because he was going to name the situation they were in. It was a matter of life or death.]

(Like hell it was! You just did that so that he would be forced to get beaten up again. You shouldn't abuse your powers as the author.)

Gene began to wobble around and lost his balance. He accidentally tripped Priscilla as he fell and landed right on top of her.

"Wha-" Priscilla was about to say when she realized that Gene was right on top of her.

"Eh," Gene got back up and began bowing multiple times, "Sorry about that. Sorry about that."

"Oh don't worry. I have a fitting punishment for you."

Her harisen turned into a giant mallet, and she slammed it right onto his head. The floor under them cracked, and the roof caved in. Priscilla was able to jump away, but Gene was too stunned to escape.

Just after he landed on the floor of the bath area, the entrance doors opened, and most of the other members of the class came in. Obviously, the girls were ready to bathe. When they noticed that the roof was open and Gene was lying face-down on the floor-.

[Out of pity, more than anything else, we'll end the chapter right here.]

(For those wondering what happened next, it's not pretty and would be considered rated R for violence.)

(…I swear. Someone's going to sue you for over-abusing your character. You've put him through so many near-death experiences, it's not even funny. It's not like putting him near death so many times will up his power level or anything.)

**Idiocy is not Something to be Proud of**

That Saturday, Gene and Negi were at another staff meeting. For the sake of safety and tranquility, Gai and Stein were not invited.

Dean Konoe put down the chest plate of the mecha which had appeared in Chapter 1 of this volume on the table. Everyone looked at it; although it was charred, dented, and warped after Negi's spells, it had still retained its original shape.

"As you have all been briefed," the dean began, "There was a giant robot which ran rampart through the school a few days ago. Thankfully, Negi and his friends were able to stop it. However, the real, worrying aspect of this incident is this piece of the robot." He tapped the chest plate again. "As you can see, it seems as if it has merely been through a few falls, but instead, it has gone through a Thousand Bolts spell."

"What?" the staff stood up. There was no way that any material directly hit by the Thousand Bolts could have survived without retaining its original shape.

"As you can see," the dean continued, his voice taking a graver tone, "Such a metal which can survive one of the most powerful spells is worrying. If someone had the resources, they could make a robot which could withstand nearly anything in the planet. Which gives rise to two questions: One: 'Who made them?', and two: 'Where did they get this material?'"

Gene raised his hand, and the dean gave him permission to speak. He stood up. "Actually, there's something I'd like to know. The technicians who were trying to control the robot said that the school had purchased them; where did our school get the money to afford such a robot?"

The dean and the other staff members looked at him with blank expressions. The dean cleared his throat. "As far as I know, our school did not purchase any robots. However, it might have been our board of directors who bought them," he said nervously.

Negi and Gene both gave him blank looks. "I never knew we even _had_ a board of directors," Negi said, saying what was on Gene's mind.

"As you all know, this is a private school," Dean Konoe explained, "We are run by private investors who run many of our school's activities. As the dean, I am a board member; however, I am usually unable to influence their decisions."

"Who are the other board members?" Gene asked.

"There are four other board members," the dean said, "The superintendent is the second board member, but the remaining three members hold the real power. None of us have ever even seen them; even during board meetings, they communicate with us through webcams which only show their silhouettes. The only thing we know about them is that they are extremely rich."

There was a silence in the room after the dean had finished.

"So~, what do we do about it?" Gene asked, breaking the silence.

Before anyone could answer, a shout of "MANLY!" could be heard in the distance.

"Oh no," Gene groaned, "Not _him_ again."

Everyone in the room instinctively ducked under the table as the wall bent inward and caved in. From the rubble, Gai walked forward. He then saw the staff members hiding under the table and said in his loud, booming voice, "You guys. Why are you having a staff meeting without the manly ME?" he arrogantly pointed at his chest, "One would think you guys were trying to ignore me. No matter. Luckily, this room was part of my morning jog route."

He then noticed Gene crawling out of the table. "You!" Gai shouted and pointed at him, "I have been training like hell since we last met. See my new move."

_Why do I have a feeling he'll explode himself and everything around him?_ Gene thought to himself.

Gai took a fighting stance, knees bent with his left foot facing forward, and held both of his arms behind him. His hands were parallel, but cupped.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Gai screamed, and a ball of energy appeared between his hands. It began as a speck and slowly began to expand in size.

"This is my new move, perfected after training in unlocking my ki," Gai said, "Kame…"

"Oh God, you can't mean you're going to use _that_ move from _that_ classic anime. If we survive this, we'll be buried alive by copyright infringement lawsuits," Gene called in warning.

"Hame…" Gai shouted, and the ball of ki began to expand even more.

Desperate to minimize the damage to the school, Gene's mind worked at light speed. He finally figured out a solution. Remembering something from the first staff meeting, he shouted at Gai. "Hey! Remember, you said that using ki blasts were unmanly or something like that."

"H-… Oh," Gai said, as if remembering his philosophy, "You're right! Maybe I-"

The ki in his hands seemed to ripple and began to go wild without Gai's focus keeping it in check. Gene flipped the table to create a barrier between Gai and the other staff members.

"Gah!" Gai cried out in surprise as the ki ball exploded in his hands. Gene covered his face as the shockwave kicked up rubble and dust.

After the explosion had passed, Gene and the other staff members stood up, coughing. In front of them was a crater through most of the school building and Gai in the center of the crater. He was lying facedown with smoke rising from his body.

(Whew, saved from copyright infringement lawsuits and the untimely deaths of some cast members.)

[Haha, that was so, damn funny.]

(What was so funny about this?)

[Isn't it funny? So far, he's exploded himself twice, with hilarious results. What's not funny about that?]

(Whatever. Just try to avoid causing the cancelation of this series from copyright infringement lawsuits.)


	4. Volume 4: Chapters 1&2

***Sorry for the long wait. I've been a bit busy with school so I haven't been able to do much for a while.

[Alright, from now on, I'll be releasing by individual chapters instead of volumes at a time. After I've uploaded every chapter of each volume, I'll just compile the chapters into a volume.]

**Weird Dreams**

_A swish of a series of black cloaks, and two figures seemed to glide through the forest floor. Far away were the sounds of dogs barking. The chatter of their handlers could be heard as well. _

_ After the two figures had confirmed that the trackers had lost their scents, they decided to stop. The shorter one sat down and removed his hood, revealing a young man of twenty with brown hair and a long cut across his cheek. The larger one did not sit down and kept his hood up, hiding his face. _

_ The smaller one took out a canteen and gulped down some water. This had been his first assignment, the assassination of a feudal lord; although it had been his senpai who had done the actual killing, he was tagging along to learn the works._

_ He looked up to the other figure, one of the masters of his cult. As expected of one of his position, the master had effortlessly and ruthlessly killed their target, a sharpened, bamboo spear to the jugular vein; death was the instant result. They had prepared two spears for the job; they had only needed one._

_ After scanning the surrounding area, the taller figure motioned his hand; it was time to go. As the younger man stood up, his senpai turned to go. Just as his senpai's back was turned to him, the apprentice struck. He raised his hand and lowered it; a large, gravity ball came down and crashed in the space where his senpai was. _

HA_, he thought, already feeling a sense of triumph, _I won.

_ However, his senpai merely dissipated the gravity ball with a wave of his hand and then threw something at the apprentice. The second, bamboo spear pierced through his neck. _

_ As he watched his intern fall, dead before he hit the ground, the master shook his head in exasperation; recruits were short these days, and ambitious ones just had to be on the rise as well._

_Thwack_!

"Ouch!" Gene cried out, and woke up from his dream. In front of him was Priscilla, with a harisen in her hands. Outside, it was dark, and even the birds had not woken up yet.

"Don't wake me up so early," he said and checked his iPhone, "It's four in the morning."

"I know," she replied, "But you said you would show me around the school today."

"I did?"

"I don't care, but you should anyways. As a new student, everyone else should show me around."

_Come to think of it_, he thought, _I haven't toured the school yet. But how to tell her to find someone else?_

Priscilla bent down so that they were face-to-face. "You haven't explored the school yet, haven't you," she said, as if reading his mind.

"Geh!" Gene exclaimed in surprise, and she whacked him again.

"You're so dense," she scolded him, "No matter where you are, you always seem the same."

Meanwhile, the others were waking up because of the ruckus. Asuna, who had woken up early enough to hear the conversation, suggested, "If you wanted a tour, you could have asked us."

Priscilla looked back at Asuna as if the idea disgusted her. "I doubt that one of the Baka Rangers could show me anything interesting," she retorted.

Konoka, only hearing Asuna's suggestion and not Priscilla's answer because she had yawned, suggested that since it was Sunday, she could take Priscilla on a tour.

Priscilla's expression changed almost immediately. "Of course," she cheerfully replied to Konoka, "Thank you."

_Is she bipolar or something?_ Gene and Asuna both thought at the same time. Konoka, unaware of Priscilla's reaction to Asuna, kept on smiling.

"WHOA!" Priscilla said as she stood at the top of the hill. They had climbed up to the observation platform was and were now watching the sunrise reveal the rest of the Mahora Campus.

"I never realized how big it was," she continued, "It's like the campus is its own city."

Konoka saw some people and waved to them. "Over here," she called.

"Oh, look. It's Gene-sensei and Priscilla-chan," said one of the girls. They both were short enough to be considered elementary schoolchildren, but Gene recognized them from his class. They looked exactly like the other one except the girl who had identified them had pigtails while the other had double buns as hairstyles.

"These are the Narutaki twins," Konoka introduced them. They both bowed. "This is Fuka," the girl with the pigtails bowed. "And this is Fumika," the girl with the double buns bowed.

"Nice to meet you," they both said.

"We'll take you around; we know the place like the back of our hands," Fuka said. She took Priscilla's hand and pulled her off.

"Hey wait…" Priscilla protested, but it seemed Fuka had more strength than met the eye. Fumika followed, and they began chatting.

"Why aren't you following them?" Asuna looked up and asked Gene. He was standing upside-down on a tree branch and looking at the view of the school.

"Because, I felt something," Gene replied.

"What?" Asuna said almost skeptically.

"I had a dream last night," Gene began, surprising himself with his talkativeness, "I saw two hooded men. They were a master/peer duo who were sent to assassinate someone. When the master's back was turned, the pupil tried to kill him; the master blocked the ambush and countered so fast that the pupil was dead in an instant. I'm wondering why I had this dream and why I am feeling like I was there when it happened."

"Then again, since you're Baka Red, I don't expect you to get any of this," he added and disappeared.

"Geez," Asuna pouted, "After a while, you start to wonder whether he's serious or not."

Konoka merely smiled and walked away with Asuna.

In the forest near Library Island, Gene jumped from tree to tree. _A left here, right, then double-back, under the brush, a secret tunnel, then right after fifty paces_, he thought almost instinctively. Although he had no idea where he was going, the path he followed seemed to be almost familiar to him, even though he had not explored the forest in depth in the past.

"Why do I feel like I've been here before?" he asked himself under his breath, "Is it a memory from my past life?"

_Here!_ He landed in a clearing and looked around. It seemed to be at the edge of the forest; there was a sheer, cliff wall in front of him with some boulders littering the ground.

_Why did my thoughts lead me here?_ he wondered. He heard a heavy clanking noise and turned around. Sitting on top of a log, whittling a stick into a sharp point, was a hooded man, the same one from Gene's dream. The man took off his hood, revealing the face, eyes, and scar, of the apprentice boy.

"So," the apprentice said, "You're back."

"Am I dead?" Gene asked, confused about this new development, "Cause I believe you are."

"No you idiot! I'm a ghost!" the apprentice shouted back.

**Meanwhile…**

"And this is the gym," Fuka said and waved her arm in a wide arc to introduce the vast gymnasium. It was divided into sections based on sports. The section nearest to the entrance had the basketball courts.

(Wait a minute. Why did we just switch to Priscilla's view?)

[Why not?]

(Well, it just seemed so sudden, and it just seems like you did this to delay whatever was happening in the last chapter.)

[So, mangakas do that all the time, and so do authors. It adds suspense. Anyways, there is some importance to this chapter as well.]

"Wait!" Priscilla finally shouted. The twins had dragged her all the way into the gymnasium. "Don't just drag me everywhere you please without any warning."

"But if you want to tour the school in one day, we have to rush," said Fuka.

"That's why we have our own route for touring the school," added Fumika.

"Ooh, is that the new student?" The girls on the courts stopped playing for a bit to wave at Priscilla.

Priscilla waved back and asked the Narutaki's, "Does news spread around this school _that_ fast?"

"Of course," said Fuka. "As we like to say: 'If someone sneezes in the entrance, the entire school will know by the time she comes to class'."

"That's an exaggeration," Fumika told her sister. "The only reason why everyone knows you're the transfer student here is because of Kazumi Asakura. She's part of the Mahora Paparazzi, so if anything happens in our class, she can spread the news in record time."

As they toured through the gym, Priscilla chatted with the girls she recognized from her class and some from others. Surprisingly, she had adapted to Mahora quite quickly; she had already befriended most of the students in her class and was moving on to the whole school.

Eventually, they stopped to eat a snack at one of the cafes. The twins ordered the same thing together, coconut parfait. Priscilla, unsure of what to buy, merely bought a milkshake. As they ate, they chatted about some of the school and the activities and laughed when they mentioned Gene's first day.

"Alright, let's move on," said Fumika.

"Just pay for us, okay," Fuka added, and they both skipped of.

"Eh?" Priscilla looked down and saw the check in front of her.

"That was mean!" Priscilla shouted as she tried catching up to the twins. Although they were small, they had already walked halfway to the large tree at the center of Mahora.

"This is the last stop," announced Fuka when Priscilla finally caught up.

"This is the World Tree. They say that it was here even at the start of the school," Fumika added.

They both began climbing the tree and motioned for Priscilla to follow. After they were on the first level of branches, they all looked out at the view. From there, Priscilla could see the whole school again.

"Wow, sugoi!" Priscilla exclaimed.

"There's also a legend associated with this tree."

"Yeah, they say that if you confess to the person you love here, then your wish will come true."

"Really?"

"Yeah, remember last year during the school-"

There was a large explosion near the forest which could be seen from their position; the shockwaves could be felt from there as well. They all clutched onto the branch to prevent themselves from falling off.

"What the hell was that?" Priscilla said after she had regained her balance.

"I don't know," Fumika replied, "Wasn't that coming from Library Island though?"

"I have to go."

Priscilla rose up and disappeared.

"Where did she go?" Fuka wondered, "We didn't even get to finish our tour of the science department yet."

"I don't know."


	5. Volume 4: Chapters 3&4

[Hello everyone. Here's the third and fourth chapter of Volume 4.]

(They can tell that by looking at the label, you know.)

[Shut up. Anyways, I consider this my first, actual battle scene, even though there was one in the third volume. Anyways, enjoy and tell me what you thought about it and how i could improve it. Suggestions will be much appreciated.]

**And We're Back**

Gene scratched his head. The ghost of the apprentice hadn't spoken for a while. "Sooo," he said hesitantly, breaking the silence, "What do you want?"

The ghost stopped whittling the branch and looked up. "Three hundred years ago, I ran away from my home because my parents were struggling with just feeding themselves and so I decided that a future with them wasn't worth it," he said, "After a few years of living as a part of a street gang, I was captured by what you modern people would have called "the police" of that period. The people I considered as my friends, no, like a second family, left me behind as we were trying to steal from a butcher; the lucky bastard tripped me before I could run away with my load. After I was caught, they locked me up. While I was in my cell, the guards beat me up."

He then pointed to the scar on his cheek. "This, I got from one, nasty guard as he slashed me with his knife while on a drunken rampage.

"Then, I was able to escape. In order to survive, I decided to kill for a living," he continued.

Gene closed his eyes in exasperation. _Why is he rambling?_

As if reading his mind, the ghost looked at him. "Jumping on ahead, I eventually became an apprentice. As per tradition, I was put under a master who would teach me how to kill as an assassin in the real world for experience. We had some fun memories until I found out a rule in the organization I was in: an apprentice could become a master instantly and without question if he could kill the person he was training under. Obviously, I wanted to take the chance."

The ghost then smiled, as if sharing a joke with himself. "I was such an idiot; after our next kill, I tried to finish my master when his back was turned. It all happened in an instant; he blocked my attack and killed me at this very spot before I even knew my attack had failed."

"…So why are you telling me this?" Gene asked.

"Maybe because I wanted to go on. I was thinking about going to one of the priests around this area, but I guess I just can't move out because of my obsession."

"And now," the ghost said and stood up, "I think I have a chance to move on."

"Why?" Gene asked confused. Usually, obsessive spirits, like this one, never had thoughts of moving on so usually had to be forced to do so. Also, obsessive spirits never showed themselves unless something familiar awoke them.

"Because of you," the ghost said and pointed at Gene's chest, "After three hundred years, you returned to this world."

"Eh?" Gene asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Don't act stupid. Although you look nothing like him, I noticed your presence immediately when you stepped foot on the country."

_So I was his master in one of my past lives_, Gene realized, _Keeping track of the many lives I've gone through is so hard._

Gene sensed something and spun to the side, avoiding a gravity ball which smashed into the ground. He had avoided death by a few milliseconds. However, when he looked up, he saw that there were three paper charms arranged around him to form a triangle on the ground.

The ghost clapped both of his hands to create a hand seal. The paper charms began glowing, and a large, earthen pillar emerged from each charm and snaked to where Gene was. All of them cut through his body and pierced through the ground. Gene's body seemed to shimmer, and a piece of wood replaced him.

Gene hid behind one of the boulders littering the ground and clutched his side. Although he had used the _Kawarimi_, the pillars had grazed his side.

_This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever_, he thought, _how can a ghost use such powerful physical and magical attacks? Just influencing the physical world should be taking away all of his strength._

"Come out, come out," the ghost called, "I have to kill you."

(What a psychotic ghost.)

[Oi! Don't interrupt the story.]

The ghost, tired of waiting, slammed his hand to the ground. All the boulders were smashed to the ground by a wide, gravity wave. After the dust from the impact cleared, Gene emerged with his side wrapped in a bandage.

_Damnit, he's a gravity user like me_, he thought, _and he knows onmyoji to boot_.

"What's wrong? You were stronger three hundred years ago. Then, you were feared as the strongest master in our organization," the ghost taunted.

Gene looked at the ghost's body; before, it was semi-transparent, but now, it was slowly becoming quite solid. The apprentice grabbed a rock and crushed it with his hands.

(Aren't they defying the laws of reality?)

[Well, reality is defined by perspective, so you can't really say that they're defying reality.]

(That is such a lame excuse.)

Gene clapped his hands together and put his palms on the ground as the apprentice disappeared. The ghost stepped behind Gene with a knife in his hand arcing down; Gene pulled his hands back, a sword appearing from the ground, and intercepted the knife.

The ghost pulled a longer knife from his sleeve and pushed down Gene's sword with both of his knives. As they struggled, the ghost kicked out, making contact with Gene's wounded side.

As Gene crouched down, clutching his side, the ghost cried out in victory and brought down both of his knives together, forming an X, to decapitate his opponent. Gene desperately shot out his hand and pushed the ghost away.

(And there goes the element of surprise for him.)

The apprentice smiled and said, "I never knew that you knew gravity magic. Ha! This just got more entertaining."

Gene clenched his teeth. He had almost every disadvantage against him: he was already injured, had less battle experience, and still hadn't recovered all of his energy he had used in the fight with Negi and his friends.

"What is your name?" Gene asked, trying to buy some time.

"Ichiro Yaka," the ghost replied.

"So what is yours?"

"Not telling."

"What?"

"I never said I would give you mine," Gene teased.

"Grr."

The ghost then flexed his hand, and three throwing knives appeared between his fingers, and he threw them. Gene knocked away two with his sword, caught the last one, and threw it back.

"Hmph," Ichiro grunted and held out his hand. The knife curved so that it flew completely to the right.

Gene took the chance and charged, his white armor and sword appearing around his body. Before his blade could even reach his target, Ichiro pointed his finger towards Gene. Gene stopped, the tip of his sword a mere few inches from Ichiro's throat.

_Damn, he's trying to use gravity to pull me away,_ Gene thought as he tried to push forward the last few inches. Ichiro stepped forward so that they were eye-to-eye; his eyes seemed cold and empty. With his other hand, he flicked Gene in the stomach.

Gene was finally pushed away. Desperately, he held both of his palms in front of him and cried out, "_Sho!_" Before he could attack with a throwing needle, Ichiro was pushed back by Gene's attack. Gene crashed into a tree, and his armor dissipated.

"What's wrong?" Ichiro taunted, "You were not this weak three hundred years ago. In fact, nothing about you is the same as before. You disappoint me."

Something about what he said hit a nerve. Gene got back up to his feet and said in a tone completely different from his previous, cheerful voice, "Don't you dare say I am the same as my predecessors."

He used a _shundo_ to get behind Ichiro. He then grabbed the materialized ghost's arms and pinned his body to the ground.

"_Saho Sa**ku!_" Gene commanded, and thick chains appeared from the ground to bind both of them together

"What?" Ichiro cried out in surprise and then began laughing. "What's this? You just bound us both together. You think this is a stalemate? Think again."

He closed his eyes and concentrated, but whatever he wanted to do didn't happen.

"What's this? Why am I not passing through?"

"Gotcha," Gene said, "You know; I also have some influence with the realm of spirits. You won't turn into a ghost to get out. Also, look around you."

Ichiro did look around and saw that there were four Gene's surrounding him. The clones raised their hands, and a magic circle appeared around them.

"Wh-What are you going to do? If you do anything, you'll be hit too," Ichiro said in a panic.

"I'm a clone, you know," Gene replied, "The real me is one of the people surrounding you. It is _you_ who will get hit."

Ichiro watched, as if in slow motion, while the clones' hands arced down.

"_Graviton Impact!_"

**We are Not the Past**

As the large wave of gravitational energy was going to the ground, Gene thought, _Yes, I've won_.

Gene's attack slammed into the ground, leveling the entire clearing and part of the cliff wall. Some loose rocks and boulders tumbled, kicking up the dust of the flattened materials. However, when he could see again, Gene saw, in astonishment, that Ichiro was standing, somewhat out of breath but alive. His right hand was crushed and useless.

"After your attack crushed your binding and clone, I was able to deflect the rest of the gravitational energy," Ichiro panted, "Now it's my turn to counter-attack."

He lifted his hand and pointed his finger at Gene's right arm. Gene felt something ominous about this and jumped to the side. However, it was too late; Gene felt his arm go numb and then crack.

"What did you do?" Gene demanded and held his now-limp arm at his side.

"I just created a gravity ball where your arm was. If you had left it there for a few more seconds, you wouldn't have an arm anymore."

_Creating a gravity ball at such a precise location would require near-perfect depth perception and manipulation over magic_, Gene realized in wonder.

Ichiro pointed his finger again. _Shit_, Gene thought and used _shundo_ to step out of range. Ichiro followed, and they began fighting physically.

Gene and Ichiro both knocked each other off-balance with their feet and thrust their hands. The force of their repulsion attacks collided between their palms. The ground between them bent down and cracked from the repulsive forces.

_He's…still…stronger_, Gene thought and struggled to keep his left arm from buckling.

Finally, the force of their attacks pushed them away from each other. Gene cried out in pain as his other arm broke.

Ichiro, on the other hand, crashed into the cliff wall. He tried to step out but found that he couldn't move.

"What?"

"_Gravity Plate_," Gene breathed out, trying to ignore the pain in his arm, "I put it on the cliff wall while I was hiding from you; it was built to activate when you touched it. Now you can't move."

"But you can't attack me with both of your arms broken," Ichiro retorted.

"Think again."

Gene pulled up his pant legs, revealing the weights strapped on his legs. He then revealed a seal placed on the case and placed his limp hands on them. His legs began glowing, and iron shackles appeared, covering his legs. They were formatted as overlapping plates sharpened into a tip, resembling scales. Gene let his body be pulled by the gravity plate and shot towards Ichiro at blinding speed.

"HA!" Gene cried out and kicked out just before reaching Ichiro. The impact sent cracks up the entire cliff wall.

Gene looked down and saw that his foot was inches from Ichiro's chest. The iron shackles had been blown off. Ichiro's hand was pointing at Gene' body, but it was obvious that it was broken now.

_He was able to stop my kick by repulsion._

Gene leapt back and collapsed on his remaining iron shackle. It seemed like he broke his now-uncovered leg during that attack.

"It looks like it's now a stalemate," Ichiro finally said.

"I still have my other leg," Gene replied.

"But if you miss, you'll be close enough for me to kill you."

"I'll take that chance."

Gene then let his body feel the attraction of the gravity plate again and leapt forward, faster than before. This time, the impact blasted through the wall; rocks and boulders flew away and fell towards the ground. The collapse of the cliff sent a huge cloud of dust up.

(God, so much dust. My sinuses will start acting up again.)

[What are you talking about? You're in a higher dimension. Dust is practically nonexistent here.]

The dust cleared, revealing Gene's foot in the middle of a hole which expanded across Ichiro's chest. Gene was panting hard and felt his side wound reopen.

Ichiro's head turned and looked at him. "So, I guess you aren't he who was my master. If both of you were the same person, you would have killed me the moment I attacked."

"I could have if I used his ability, but I didn't because I am not he. That was what I was trying to tell you since the beginning."

Ichiro looked up at the sky and smiled; his eyes seemed to have a sense of peace now. His body began dissipating until all that was left was a small, glowing sphere with a tail on the top. Gene stepped forward to grab it, when Priscilla appeared. She looked at the ruined landscape and at Gene; she interpreted what had occurred in an instant.

Upon noticing the apprentice's soul floating on the ground, she took it and slashed it in half.

"Why? Why did you kill his soul?" Gene shouted at her and tried to step forward but flinched as a spike of pain went through his unbroken leg. "He didn't deserve that."

"Yes he did," she replied without a hint of remorse. She then punched Gene in the stomach, knocking him out.

"Fool," she said, looking down at him lying down, "Worry about yourself first. I mean, seriously, you broke most of your limbs."

Priscilla hefted him onto her back and jumped towards the school hospital.


	6. Volume 4: Chapters 5&6

**As the Dream Ends**

Gene woke up and tried to sit up. He winced and saw that his entire body was covered in bandages. He remembered what had happened and looked at his arms. After flexing them around, he saw that they were not broken for now. Another test with his legs revealed the same.

"So, the sleeper awakes," Priscilla said, startling him. She was sitting down on a chair next to Gene's bed.

"How long?"

"Five hours. I had a look at you and healed you while taking you here. I'm surprised; you broke almost all of your limbs, and you nearly lost your right arm because of the damage. Thankfully, I am quite skilled at healing."

"Aren't you going to hit me for being reckless? Or are you going to hit me for not being as strong as I should be with all of my millennia of experience?" Gene asked, looking up at the ceiling and remembering what Ichiro had said.

"Of course not, I only hit you if you'll survive it," Priscilla replied. She took out an apple and silently began cutting it into eighths.

Gene sighed and looked out the window. It was sunset, so there was a breathtaking view of the campus with the World Tree's silhouette at the center.

_I need to train myself_, he concluded after going after the battle, _I relied too much on my hands for my techniques. He was right; if I hadn't had something to reinforce my feet, I would have died. Also, I rely too much on the techniques of my predecessors. I am not them, so I'd better stop relying on them._

_ Also_, he continued, _I need to work on my endurance and timing. In fact, I have a lot I need to work on if I want to be effective during a crisis._

"Have you finished yet?" Priscilla cut into his thoughts.

"What?"

"Thinking about how you want to improve yourself," she put the plate of apple slices in front of him and leaned back, "You finally figured out that you have to stand on your own."

"Now you'll have to go through my hellish training regimen," Priscilla declared, "You'll train tirelessly as your predecessor did until you catch up to him and surpass him… Hey! Pay attention to me!"

Gene had been wolfing down the apple slices and completely ignored Priscilla's words.

"What?" he asked, in the middle of putting the last slice in his mouth.

"I'm trying to tell you that you're going to face my hellish training after you get out of the hospital ward."

"Hell no!" Gene stuck his tongue out at her and jumped through the window.

"Wait the window-" Priscilla tried to warn him, but it was too late. He jumped and broke through the glass of the window.

"-was still closed," she finished and slapped her hand onto her head. "That idiot," she whispered as she watched Gene run away back to the forest.

Gene landed in the clearing where he had just fought. Some instinct had led him to come back, just as it had led him to come here before. He examined the very spot where Priscilla had slashed Ichiro's soul in half.

"Why did your soul have to die?" he wondered out loud.

"I'm wondering about that too," said someone right beside him.

Gene nodded his head in acknowledgement; then he noticed that someone not in his head had spoken. He looked around and saw Ichiro, floating right beside him.

"What the hell!" Gene inadvertently shouted out in surprise.

"Yo," the ghost said and raised his hand in greeting. "I thought the same too."

"Bu-but…"

"Somehow, when my soul was slashed in half, I rematerialized. Then I realized that I could go on if I wanted to," Ichiro explained.

"So why haven't you?"

"Just to reassure you that I didn't die like we both thought."

"Yeah…So you can go on now."

"No."

"Eh?"

The ghost looked around and finally said, "I wanted to stay. It seems like this decade's going to be eventful so I wanted to stay."

"Have it your way."

Gene then wondered what he should do now. Ichiro did have more experience in gravity magic than he; although Ichiro had been purified, it was unlikely that he would be of actual help during a crisis. And what Ichiro had said was correct, it seemed like there were strange things going on at Mahora.

"You need to find a way to train the amount of months in the span of weeks. But we both know that that's impossible," Ichiro suggested.

"Maybe not. Meet me at my room," Gene said. An idea had just appeared in his mind, and he ran off.

"Where is his house?" Ichiro wondered.

He skidded to a stop in front of Evangeline's house. He took a deep breath, cupped his hands in front of his mouth, and shouted:

"KITTY! GET OUT OF YOUR SHACK. WE NEED TO TALK!"

Chachamaru opened the door, and Evangeline stepped out, rubbing her eyes.

"Don't wake me up when I'm sleeping," she groaned.

Gene put his hands on his hips and admonished her, "Kitty, Kitty, you really shouldn't sleep throughout the day. You should go out and have some fun once in a while. You know; socialize with your classmates. Even if you're actually an old vampire, you need to live in the outside world sometimes."

"Wait a minute. Did you just call me 'Kitty'?" Evangeline asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I _hate_ that nickname! Why couldn't you give me another one?"

"Master. 'Kitty' is a perfectly fine nickname," Chachamaru said.

"Shut up," she snapped at her robotic servant, "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Just wanted to let you know, Master."

"Anyways," Gene went to the point of why he was there. "Can you lend me one of your resort spheres you have for training Negi?"

"Eh? Why?" Evangeline asked, in the middle of disciplining Chachamaru.

"Thank you." Gene flying-kicked Eva, knocking her into the floor, to enter her house. He automatically went down into her basement.

"Hey!" Eva protested, with a footprint stamped on her face.

There was a loud clattering as Gene dug through the clutter in her basement. Eva tried to go down to protest, but flew out along with a refrigerator, a couch, and an old TV set that Gene had thrown out in his search.

"Aha!" Gene emerged with a dusty diorama sphere in his hands. He turned to Eva who was massaging some new bruises. "Thank you. And you really should think about cleaning up the stuff in your basement. I'd swear that some crap in there which haven't seen the light of day in centuries."

He disappeared as fast as he had come. Eva went outside to try catching him, but he was already out of sight.

"Hey!" she shouted, "Don't go into people's houses without permission!" she shouted into the distance.

"Master, I don't think he can hear you from that far," Chachamaru said.

"Shut up."

Eva began stretching Chachamaru's cheeks, and they both collapsed onto the ground as they struggled.

(Is she seriously older than the Americas? Her maturity level is that of an elementary schooler.)

[Well, she hasn't really been able to mature that much in 500 years, you know.]

Gene nestled the diorama sphere in a hidden compartment in his closet wall. He then got out some chalk and inscribed a magic circle around the compartment so that the circle would be completed after the compartment was completely opened.

"Alright," he said, "Let's try this."

He clapped his hands together, activating the circle. The space around it glowed, and he disappeared.

When he materialized inside of the sphere, Gene saw that he was in the middle of a gigantic castle in the middle of a jungle. He first decided to tour the rooms in the castle and furnish it to his needs. Oddly, there were lots of medieval antiques and Renaissance artworks throughout the hallways.

"Ooh," he said as he examined another piece of art before putting it in a russack, "I think that's another Michelangelo work too. I'll need to send these to a friend of mine to verify these things. Who knew that a chibi-vampire would have so much priceless art stowed away?"

After putting his stash in front of the magic circle which marked the entrance and exit, he decided that that was enough. Although Priscilla had healed his wounds from the fight earlier today, he still felt somewhat fatigued from using so much energy within a week. After going through the bedrooms, he chose the master room, whose contents were surprisingly well-kept, and slept for the rest of the day.

When he came out of the sphere, only an hour had passed in the outside world. He closed the compartment and covered it with a cloths hanger and hung a trench coat over it. After reexamining the spot to make sure it was inconspicuous, he exited.

Outside, Negi, Asuna, and Konoka had already come back and were sleeping. Realizing that tomorrow was a school day, he decided to sleep some more.

**Net-Idol's Double-Life**

_Why do I have to be in the class full of weirdoes? _Chisame Hasegawa thought for the umpteenth time. _I mean, we have a robot, a vampire, a ninja, a kung-fu crazy girl, and don't even get me started about Negi-sensei and that Chao. _

_ Recently, my sense of reality has been repeatedly crushed by these crazy going-ons. After returning from the magic world, I thought life would be somewhat norma,l but no. We just had to have two new people in our class. Both of whom have weird pasts. Like the new teacher, how does anyone graduate from graduate school before being able to vote? And the new girl, well, there's just something weird about her too._

"Umm, let's see. Let's have Chisame-san read the next passage for the class. I don't think I've called on her yet," Gene said as he walked by her desk, with an English book in his hands. His request interrupted Chisame from her mental monologue.

Chisame stood up, cleared her throat, and read the wrong passage. The class laughed at her blunder, and she blushed and sat down to try disappearing. The class president raised her hand and flawlessly read the passage.

As Chisame walked back to her room, she fumed inwardly. "He just had to ask me and humiliate me in front of the whole class!" she complained out loud, drawing the attention of the people walking past her.

She opened the door of her room and slammed the door shut. When she was sure that all the windows were covered by shades, she opened her closet, revealing a green screen and racks of cosplaying clothes. After digging around for a few seconds, she picked out a bunny suit and put it on.

She then set up a camera in front of the green screen and began taking pictures of herself in various poses. After doing this with a variety of costumes, she went onto her computer and downloaded the pictures.

Then, she Photoshopped the pictures and then posted them online on her website. After a few minutes, the replies flooded in. She cried out in pride at the sight of her online popularity.

"Oh, so _you_'re the net idol, Chiu," Gene said from behind her.

Chisame nearly fell off her chair in surprise. "What the hell are you doing in my room?" she demanded. "Did you stalk me all the way to my house?"

"You left your laptop in the classroom," Gene said and held out her prized laptop, the most recent model.

Chisame made a grab for it, but Gene held it out of reach. "Give…that…back," she grunted as Gene maneuvered her laptop out of her grasp.

Finally, she was able to grab it and hugged protectively to her chest. "Why did I leave this in the classroom?" she wondered.

"Who knows?" Gene took out his own laptop and began looking through it. Chisame peeked at his screen and nearly spat in surprise at what she was seeing.

"Is that…me?" she asked. There were pictures that she had taken of herself in various costumes scrolling across Gene's laptop screen.

"How did you get those?" she demanded.

"The Internet," he said and then laughed.

"Just kidding," he added and waved his hand dismissively, "I downloaded them off your laptop."

"What?" Chisame could not believe that someone could hack into her computer, in which she had installed the latest security software to protect it from hackers.

"One thing you learn from the computer nerds from MIT: never trust the latest security software to block off the nerds who probably designed their own, similar versions of the very program you're using."

"That doesn't answer the question of why you could get those pictures," she pressed on.

"I asked one of those computer nerds to teach me about computers, code, programming, and that stuff. He said I had a knack for it. Actually, your computer was easy to hack into. I broke through your password while in the bus on the way here."

Meanwhile, Chisame was wondering what she should do. If her secret were revealed, her entire life would be ruined; that was how many pictures of her net-idol, alter-ego were online.

Gene then laughed good-naturedly. "Don't worry. I'm from America, remember. I know that linking Chiu to you would probably ruin your future. I just hacked into your computer because I was bored and decided to practice." He then deleted the photos and showed the result to her.

"Look through it to make sure I'm not tricking you." He offered.

Chisame snatched his laptop and clicked through all of his files. As he had said, there was no remaining evidence of her photos. She gave the laptop back to him and nodded her approval.

"Bye." He opened her door and walked out. After a few seconds of silence, Chisame let out a sigh of relief. Then, another thing dawned on her.

"How did he get into my room?"

(That's it for Volume 4. Hope you all liked it. The next release will be an extra chapter based on Va-mmph!)

[Hey! Don't spoil what's going to happen next.]

(*Gasp. Don't put your hand over my mouth; I could have choked.)

[Hey, you're a narrator. I'm the author. I call the shots in this thing.]

(You're so arrogant.)

[So, what's new about that?]

(That was an insult.)

[That wasn't an insult, that was a comment.]

(Why are we arguing like this?)

[To show the readers that even we, the higher beings of the story, aren't "Mary Sue"s.]

(I thought that was obvious at the Author's notes at the end of Volume 1)

[Yeah, that's true. But we also provide some comic

**As the Dream Ends**

Gene woke up and tried to sit up. He winced and saw that his entire body was covered in bandages. He remembered what had happened and looked at his arms. After flexing them around, he saw that they were not broken for now. Another test with his legs revealed the same.

"So, the sleeper awakes," Priscilla said, startling him. She was sitting down on a chair next to Gene's bed.

"How long?"

"Five hours. I had a look at you and healed you while taking you here. I'm surprised; you broke almost all of your limbs, and you nearly lost your right arm because of the damage. Thankfully, I am quite skilled at healing."

"Aren't you going to hit me for being reckless? Or are you going to hit me for not being as strong as I should be with all of my millennia of experience?" Gene asked, looking up at the ceiling and remembering what Ichiro had said.

"Of course not, I only hit you if you'll survive it," Priscilla replied. She took out an apple and silently began cutting it into eighths.

Gene sighed and looked out the window. It was sunset, so there was a breathtaking view of the campus with the World Tree's silhouette at the center.

_I need to train myself_, he concluded after going after the battle, _I relied too much on my hands for my techniques. He was right; if I hadn't had something to reinforce my feet, I would have died. Also, I rely too much on the techniques of my predecessors. I am not them, so I'd better stop relying on them._

_ Also_, he continued, _I need to work on my endurance and timing. In fact, I have a lot I need to work on if I want to be effective during a crisis._

"Have you finished yet?" Priscilla cut into his thoughts.

"What?"

"Thinking about how you want to improve yourself," she put the plate of apple slices in front of him and leaned back, "You finally figured out that you have to stand on your own."

"Now you'll have to go through my hellish training regimen," Priscilla declared, "You'll train tirelessly as your predecessor did until you catch up to him and surpass him… Hey! Pay attention to me!"

Gene had been wolfing down the apple slices and completely ignored Priscilla's words.

"What?" he asked, in the middle of putting the last slice in his mouth.

"I'm trying to tell you that you're going to face my hellish training after you get out of the hospital ward."

"Hell no!" Gene stuck his tongue out at her and jumped through the window.

"Wait the window-" Priscilla tried to warn him, but it was too late. He jumped and broke through the glass of the window.

"-was still closed," she finished and slapped her hand onto her head. "That idiot," she whispered as she watched Gene run away back to the forest.

Gene landed in the clearing where he had just fought. Some instinct had led him to come back, just as it had led him to come here before. He examined the very spot where Priscilla had slashed Ichiro's soul in half.

"Why did your soul have to die?" he wondered out loud.

"I'm wondering about that too," said someone right beside him.

Gene nodded his head in acknowledgement; then he noticed that someone not in his head had spoken. He looked around and saw Ichiro, floating right beside him.

"What the hell!" Gene inadvertently shouted out in surprise.

"Yo," the ghost said and raised his hand in greeting. "I thought the same too."

"Bu-but…"

"Somehow, when my soul was slashed in half, I rematerialized. Then I realized that I could go on if I wanted to," Ichiro explained.

"So why haven't you?"

"Just to reassure you that I didn't die like we both thought."

"Yeah…So you can go on now."

"No."

"Eh?"

The ghost looked around and finally said, "I wanted to stay. It seems like this decade's going to be eventful so I wanted to stay."

"Have it your way."

Gene then wondered what he should do now. Ichiro did have more experience in gravity magic than he; although Ichiro had been purified, it was unlikely that he would be of actual help during a crisis. And what Ichiro had said was correct, it seemed like there were strange things going on at Mahora.

"You need to find a way to train the amount of months in the span of weeks. But we both know that that's impossible," Ichiro suggested.

"Maybe not. Meet me at my room," Gene said. An idea had just appeared in his mind, and he ran off.

"Where is his house?" Ichiro wondered.

He skidded to a stop in front of Evangeline's house. He took a deep breath, cupped his hands in front of his mouth, and shouted:

"KITTY! GET OUT OF YOUR SHACK. WE NEED TO TALK!"

Chachamaru opened the door, and Evangeline stepped out, rubbing her eyes.

"Don't wake me up when I'm sleeping," she groaned.

Gene put his hands on his hips and admonished her, "Kitty, Kitty, you really shouldn't sleep throughout the day. You should go out and have some fun once in a while. You know; socialize with your classmates. Even if you're actually an old vampire, you need to live in the outside world sometimes."

"Wait a minute. Did you just call me 'Kitty'?" Evangeline asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I _hate_ that nickname! Why couldn't you give me another one?"

"Master. 'Kitty' is a perfectly fine nickname," Chachamaru said.

"Shut up," she snapped at her robotic servant, "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Just wanted to let you know, Master."

"Anyways," Gene went to the point of why he was there. "Can you lend me one of your resort spheres you have for training Negi?"

"Eh? Why?" Evangeline asked, in the middle of disciplining Chachamaru.

"Thank you." Gene flying-kicked Eva, knocking her into the floor, to enter her house. He automatically went down into her basement.

"Hey!" Eva protested, with a footprint stamped on her face.

There was a loud clattering as Gene dug through the clutter in her basement. Eva tried to go down to protest, but flew out along with a refrigerator, a couch, and an old TV set that Gene had thrown out in his search.

"Aha!" Gene emerged with a dusty diorama sphere in his hands. He turned to Eva who was massaging some new bruises. "Thank you. And you really should think about cleaning up the stuff in your basement. I'd swear that some crap in there which haven't seen the light of day in centuries."

He disappeared as fast as he had come. Eva went outside to try catching him, but he was already out of sight.

"Hey!" she shouted, "Don't go into people's houses without permission!" she shouted into the distance.

"Master, I don't think he can hear you from that far," Chachamaru said.

"Shut up."

Eva began stretching Chachamaru's cheeks, and they both collapsed onto the ground as they struggled.

(Is she seriously older than the Americas? Her maturity level is that of an elementary schooler.)

[Well, she hasn't really been able to mature that much in 500 years, you know.]

Gene nestled the diorama sphere in a hidden compartment in his closet wall. He then got out some chalk and inscribed a magic circle around the compartment so that the circle would be completed after the compartment was completely opened.

"Alright," he said, "Let's try this."

He clapped his hands together, activating the circle. The space around it glowed, and he disappeared.

When he materialized inside of the sphere, Gene saw that he was in the middle of a gigantic castle in the middle of a jungle. He first decided to tour the rooms in the castle and furnish it to his needs. Oddly, there were lots of medieval antiques and Renaissance artworks throughout the hallways.

"Ooh," he said as he examined another piece of art before putting it in a russack, "I think that's another Michelangelo work too. I'll need to send these to a friend of mine to verify these things. Who knew that a chibi-vampire would have so much priceless art stowed away?"

After putting his stash in front of the magic circle which marked the entrance and exit, he decided that that was enough. Although Priscilla had healed his wounds from the fight earlier today, he still felt somewhat fatigued from using so much energy within a week. After going through the bedrooms, he chose the master room, whose contents were surprisingly well-kept, and slept for the rest of the day.

When he came out of the sphere, only an hour had passed in the outside world. He closed the compartment and covered it with a cloths hanger and hung a trench coat over it. After reexamining the spot to make sure it was inconspicuous, he exited.

Outside, Negi, Asuna, and Konoka had already come back and were sleeping. Realizing that tomorrow was a school day, he decided to sleep some more.

**Net-Idol's Double-Life**

_Why do I have to be in the class full of weirdoes? _Chisame Hasegawa thought for the umpteenth time. _I mean, we have a robot, a vampire, a ninja, a kung-fu crazy girl, and don't even get me started about Negi-sensei and that Chao. _

_ Recently, my sense of reality has been repeatedly crushed by these crazy going-ons. After returning from the magic world, I thought life would be somewhat norma,l but no. We just had to have two new people in our class. Both of whom have weird pasts. Like the new teacher, how does anyone graduate from graduate school before being able to vote? And the new girl, well, there's just something weird about her too._

"Umm, let's see. Let's have Chisame-san read the next passage for the class. I don't think I've called on her yet," Gene said as he walked by her desk, with an English book in his hands. His request interrupted Chisame from her mental monologue.

Chisame stood up, cleared her throat, and read the wrong passage. The class laughed at her blunder, and she blushed and sat down to try disappearing. The class president raised her hand and flawlessly read the passage.

As Chisame walked back to her room, she fumed inwardly. "He just had to ask me and humiliate me in front of the whole class!" she complained out loud, drawing the attention of the people walking past her.

She opened the door of her room and slammed the door shut. When she was sure that all the windows were covered by shades, she opened her closet, revealing a green screen and racks of cosplaying clothes. After digging around for a few seconds, she picked out a bunny suit and put it on.

She then set up a camera in front of the green screen and began taking pictures of herself in various poses. After doing this with a variety of costumes, she went onto her computer and downloaded the pictures.

Then, she Photoshopped the pictures and then posted them online on her website. After a few minutes, the replies flooded in. She cried out in pride at the sight of her online popularity.

"Oh, so _you_'re the net idol, Chiu," Gene said from behind her.

Chisame nearly fell off her chair in surprise. "What the hell are you doing in my room?" she demanded. "Did you stalk me all the way to my house?"

"You left your laptop in the classroom," Gene said and held out her prized laptop, the most recent model.

Chisame made a grab for it, but Gene held it out of reach. "Give…that…back," she grunted as Gene maneuvered her laptop out of her grasp.

Finally, she was able to grab it and hugged protectively to her chest. "Why did I leave this in the classroom?" she wondered.

"Who knows?" Gene took out his own laptop and began looking through it. Chisame peeked at his screen and nearly spat in surprise at what she was seeing.

"Is that…me?" she asked. There were pictures that she had taken of herself in various costumes scrolling across Gene's laptop screen.

"How did you get those?" she demanded.

"The Internet," he said and then laughed.

"Just kidding," he added and waved his hand dismissively, "I downloaded them off your laptop."

"What?" Chisame could not believe that someone could hack into her computer, in which she had installed the latest security software to protect it from hackers.

"One thing you learn from the computer nerds from MIT: never trust the latest security software to block off the nerds who probably designed their own, similar versions of the very program you're using."

"That doesn't answer the question of why you could get those pictures," she pressed on.

"I asked one of those computer nerds to teach me about computers, code, programming, and that stuff. He said I had a knack for it. Actually, your computer was easy to hack into. I broke through your password while in the bus on the way here."

Meanwhile, Chisame was wondering what she should do. If her secret were revealed, her entire life would be ruined; that was how many pictures of her net-idol, alter-ego were online.

Gene then laughed good-naturedly. "Don't worry. I'm from America, remember. I know that linking Chiu to you would probably ruin your future. I just hacked into your computer because I was bored and decided to practice." He then deleted the photos and showed the result to her.

"Look through it to make sure I'm not tricking you." He offered.

Chisame snatched his laptop and clicked through all of his files. As he had said, there was no remaining evidence of her photos. She gave the laptop back to him and nodded her approval.

"Bye." He opened her door and walked out. After a few seconds of silence, Chisame let out a sigh of relief. Then, another thing dawned on her.

"How did he get into my room?"

(So that's the end of volume 4. Hope you liked it. Even though these last two chapters were pretty much fil-mmph!)

[Umm...umm...He didn't mean to say anything. Just ignore him.]

(*Ha! Don't cover my mouth like that. I could have choked to death.)

[Hey, you're a higher being right now, you shouldn't be able to die here.]

(So you say, but you're the author, god of life and death in the story. You can change the rules of reality in a heartbeat and only have the angry reviews of fans to worry about.)

[That's what makes my job so fun.]

(...Are we rambling again?)

[I think so. Maybe we should just end it...Hey! Are you going to cut me off ag-]


	7. Valentine's Special

**Extra: Valentine's Day Special, Part 1. Hearts Beating Fast for Tomorrow**

[Ah, Valentine's Day. A day in Japan where girls give chocolate to the people they like. Of course, nowadays, it's common for friends to give chocolate to each other just as friends.]

(Of course, it's just a ploy for Japanese chocolate sellers to get a lot of money.)

[Ah, but there is something sweet about the idea of it. Don't you think so?]

[Alright, since we started this after Valentine's Day, we've decided to do one so just assume it is the day before Valentine's Day today since we don't know if this fanfic will continue until next year. So, enjoy.]

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Sayo said nervously as she paced/floated around the classroom, "I don't know how I can give Valentine's chocolate to him."

"Ah! I know; I'll make Kazumi-san get some for me to give him," she said and floated over to the girls' dorms.

Since it was Sunday, many of the other girls at Mahora were busily either making chocolates at home or going out to buy some for their friends or lovers.

As Gene and Negi were sleeping in, oblivious of the frantic actions and woes of the girls on campus, Asuna and Konoka were in the kitchen, trying to make chocolates instead of buying them.

"So you do this," Asuna read from the cookbook, "and-kya!" The batter exploded on her face, covering her with chocolate powder. Konoka laughed at the comedic sight and helped Asuna wipe off the mess.

After about an hour of failures by Asuna, she was finally able to finish a batch of chocolates with Konoka's help. Then, Konoka went to make hers and made a perfect batch on her first try.

"Sorry, Asuna-chan," she said as Asuna looked at Konoka's batch, which looked infinitely more appealing than Asuna's, "But I still think yours looks delicious anyways. I'm sure Takahata-sensei will love them."

Asuna nearly fell over in surprise. "How did you know I was going to give some chocolates to Takahata-sensei?" she demanded. Konoka merely giggled.

"It's because you like him, don't you."

They both looked over; Gene had awoken and had been watching them bake chocolates with an amused expression on his face. It was he who had said that comment.

Asuna blushed and looked away. "So what?" she said and pouted, "I can't like whoever I want."

"No, no," Gene quickly said, trying to avoid a violent reaction from Asuna. "It's just that he _is _kinda old for a middle-school girl like you."

Asuna covered the distance between them in an instant and punched Gene's head into the floor.

"Don't throw doubt on a maiden's love," she shouted at him.

* * *

In Kotarou's room, his roommates, Natsumi Murakami and Chizuru Naba were in the kitchen as well. Ayaka Yukihiro, his third roommate and the class president, was out at her mansion.

"Hau~" Natsumi groaned as her batch of chocolates came out as failures, "Chizu-nee, this is too hard."

"Don't worry, Natsumi," Chizuru encouraged, "After a few more tries, yours will look like mine. Look."

She flourished her own tray; because Chizuru was practically a professional in cooking, making chocolates came easily to her. Natsumi looked at Chizuru's chocolates and compared them to her own. She immediately threw hers in the trash.

"Anyways," Chizuru said sneakily, "Who do you want to give Valentine's Chocolates to anyways?"

"Ehh…umm," Natsumi stalled when Kotarou entered the room.

"Hey, Natsumi-neechan, Chizu-nee, what are you guys making over there? It smells good" he said.

Natsumi panicked and pushed him out through the doorway. "Don't come back in until I say so," she quickly said and slammed the door shut. Kotarou, who was completely clueless about Valentine's Day, scratched his head in confusion.

Back in the kitchen, Natsumi sighed in relief.

"Oh? So the person you wanted to give them to was Kotarou-kun?" Chizuru said and put her hand over her mouth mischievously.

"No, don't say that. Chizu-ne~e!" Natsumi cried out.

* * *

"Yo," Gene said as he and Negi entered Setsuna's and Priscilla's room. They had been kicked out by Asuna after Negi had woken up because Asuna and Konoka had wanted to bake in privacy.

In their kitchen, Priscilla and Setsuna were both at odds over how to make chocolates; they both had practically zero domestic skills.

"So, Setsuna-san," Priscilla said, not noticing Gene and Negi entering the room, "How do you want your chocolate to look like?"

"Hmm…I'm wondering if I should have: 'To Ojou-sama' or 'To Kono-chan' written on mine. What about you?"

"I think I should have: 'To my-'…Hey! What are you doing here?" Priscilla said, finally noticing the two guests.

"We did introduce ourselves, you know," Gene said, "So you guys are also making chocolates as well? Is there some bake-sale event tomorrow?"

Priscilla slapped Gene and Negi out with one swipe of her harisen in an instant.

"Don't come in! Don't you guys have any decency when it comes to the matters of a girl's heart?" Priscilla shouted at them and slammed the door shut.

Gene and Negi were walking around the campus when they noticed Kotarou passing by. They called him over and began discussing why they were all kicked out of their rooms.

"I think that there's some bake-sale tomorrow," Gene suggested.

"That would make sense," Negi agreed, "Since it seems like the entire class is baking something, but that wouldn't explain why we were kicked out."

"Don't worry about that. Usually, girls are just shy if someone's watching them baking something," Gene said.

"I wonder why we didn't hear of this bake-sale," Kotarou wondered.

"Or maybe there's a holiday involving chocolates tomorrow…Nah, I can't think of any right now."

"Let's ask around."

(How clueless can you get?)

[Seriously.]

"Nodoka-san, Yue-san," Negi called as he knocked on their door. They had gone back to the girls' dorms to ask some of the students about why everyone was being so edgy about making chocolates.

"Ah! It's Negi-sensei. Do we let him in?" Nodoka's voice could be faintly heard from inside.

"No. We have to keep it a secret until tomorrow," Yue whispered back.

"Ara, ara," said another voice. This voice, Gene recognized as Haruna, another girl from the Library Exploration Club. "They're making chocolates for y-mmph!"

Her voice was abruptly interrupted by the sound of something covering her mouth. There were sounds of squabbling which finally ended with multiple objects going *thump, on someone's head, and Haruna became silent.

"Umm…uh…Don't come in, sensei," Nodoka finally called to them, "Umm…We're busy right now, so…umm…come back later."

"What was that all about?" they all asked each other.

"Master," Negi called out. This time, they were in front of Evangeline's cabin. Negi knocked on the door a few times.

The door opened, revealing Evangeline in the doorway. She took a look at them and smiled smugly and pointed inside.

"So, the boya's here, eh? Well, Chachamaru's in the kitchen."

"Why did she tell us where Chachamaru is?" Kotarou asked Negi as they walked to the kitchen. Inside, Chachamaru was busy looking over something in a baking tray.

(Obviously, you all know what's she's doing.)

"Perfect," she said before looking back because she had heard the door open. She stopped when she saw Negi approaching the kitchen.

"No!" she cried out and rocket-punched, Negi into Gene, into Kotarou, and pushed them all outside of the house.

She then ran up to the door and slammed it shut. There was a loud clattering throughout the house, and all the windows were closed and boarded up, to prevent anyone from looking in.

"Oww," Gene groaned and massaged his back, "What hit us?"

"Why did Chachamaru do that?" Negi wondered.

"That was her?" Gene asked, "I thought that was Kitty. I guess Chachamaru also knows some attacks too. Did she like push us back with ki or something?"

Before Negi could open his mouth to correct him, Asuna and Konoka walked by. Asuna waved at them and called: "Negi, Gene, you guys can come back now."

"So…Have we figured out what's going on tomorrow?" Gene asked Negi as they walked back to their dorm room. Kotarou had gone back to his room after Natsumi had called him back.

"Umm…no," Negi replied and then asked Asuna, "So what event is tomorrow?"

Asuna stopped. "None of your business," she replied and walked on.

"Hey," Gene had a thought, "I remembered a few holidays where people give chocolates out. I think they were: Halloween, Easter, and…ehh~"

(Why did you just use that gun again?)

[Because, it's more fun if they're clueless about Valentine's Day.]

"What? What?" Negi asked because Gene hadn't finished his sentence.

"Never mind," he replied and massaged his head, "I forgot."

* * *

"Is this how you make it?" Priscilla asked Setsuna, holding a warped piece of chocolate in her hands.

Setsuna put her hand on her chin. "I don't know."

* * *

Sayo happily floated out of Kazumi's house, nestling a bag of chocolates in her hands.

(How the hell can a ghost hold something solid in her hands?)

[Don't question it. Just accept it. Anyways, we accept all the crazy crap we see in manga as feasible. I think a ghost entering the realm of physical reality isn't exactly as far fetched as a guy who can morph into a giant, fire-breathing monkey.]

(But those are aliens who are turning into giant monkeys.)

[That justifies the logic of that phenomenon? Anyways, it completely ignores the Law of Conservation of Matter. If we can throw out one of the most basic laws of the universe, we can accept ghosts being able to hold physical objects.]

(Ah well, next chapter, Valentine's Day. Who will successfully deliver their chocolates and who will lose their gifts? We'll soon find out.)

* * *

[…You know. Whenever you make a preview announcement, it sucks.]

(Shut up!)

* * *

**Extra Chapter 2: Valentine's Day Special, Part 2. Will it Reach Him?**

Monday, February 14, Valentines Day:

Asuna and Konoka woke up early to get to school before their teachers to deliver their presents. The sneaked into the teachers' mail room and found many other like-minded girls there as well. Asuna quickly went up to Takamichi's mailbox and opened it up, hoping to be the first girl to put chocolate in his box.

To her surprise, there were many other gift-bags in there as well. Disheartened, she ran out before Konoka could catch her.

"Asuna," Konoka called, "Why didn't you leave your gift for Takahata-sensei?"

"I changed my mind," Asuna cried back, "Just leave me alone."

Konoka stopped and giggled. "Asuna, you're still the same as ever when it comes to Takahata-sensei," she sighed.

"Ah yes," she said, remembering why she had followed Asuna into the teachers' mailroom. She skipped over to Gene's mailbox and opened it up. She then slid a bag of chocolates in.

"There," she cheerfully said and closed it. She then went to the boxes of all of her former teachers and put a bag of chocolates in each one before leaving.

* * *

Sayo quickly drifted into the teachers' mailroom. She put her hand to her chest and looked at all the other girls delivering their chocolates to their teachers. The sight unnerved her.

"Umm… I think it was here," she said to herself and went to the box with Gene's name written on it. Upon opening it, she was surprised to find a Valentine's bag there already. It was the one Konoka had put in earlier.

"Ah!" she exclaimed in surprise and slammed the door shut.

_I never knew he already had someone who liked him. Why would he choose me, a ghost, over someone else anyways?_, she thought, _I'm so stupid for thinking that he would accept my gift. This whole idea was stupid_.

Tears began streaming down her face, and she flew out of the room, clutching her gift close to her chest.

Negi and Gene both walked into the teachers' mailroom and opened their respective boxes. Gene looked in his and, to his surprise, saw a bag of chocolates waiting for him.

"Oh, today is February 14th," Gene realized, "Valentine's Day. _That_'s why all the girls were making chocolates and kicking us out."

"You don't seem that surprised that only girls give presents," Negi said, "I don't think they have that in America."

"Yeah," Gene replied, "But I've read enough manga to understand this."

"Really?" Negi said and tried reaching for his box. However, because the box was higher that him, he couldn't open it.

Gene laughed and went over. Before opening the mailbox, he noticed the names written on it.

"Hey, Negi. Why do you and Takamichi-san share the same mailbox?" Gene asked.

"Oh. When I first came here, I shared the same mailbox with Takamichi-san to help familiarize me with the school. However, we still haven't bothered getting me my own box yet."

"Oh," Gene said and opened Negi's box. A huge pile of gifts, hastily stuffed into the locker, teetered around before falling down.

"Ah!" Gene and Negi both cried out as they both dodged the stream.

The mountain of Valentine's chocolates were now sprawled all over the ground. Negi and Gene rushed to pick them all up. Gene turned one over and read the card on it.

"To Negi-sensei." He then read another one. "To Negi-sensei."

(In order to save space, just know that all of the chocolates had "To Negi-sensei" on them…. That kid, he doesn't even know how lucky he is.)

[Don't interrupt the story. It's pretty obvious to everyone reading this that Negi would get that many chocolates on Valentine's Day.]

After going through half the stack, Gene turned around another bag to read the label, already predicting what he would read. However, the result surprised him.

"Hey, Negi," he called over. Negi looked up from the chocolates he was organizing. "Why does this one say 'To Nagi-san'? Isn't that the name of your dad?"

The child-teacher laughed nervously. "Well, during the school festival last year, Kotarou and I used Age-Changing Pills to make us look older. While in my older form, I called myself Nagi to ward off suspicion and called myself my cousin. It looks like a lot of people saw me."

"Me**mo?" Gene asked under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

_Hmm, Negi as a teenager. _ Gene thought and tried imagining it. What came in his mind was some bishounen guy with a sparkly background.

After gathering all of Negi's Valentine's chocolates into one pile, Gene nudged Negi with his elbow. "Hey," he teased the younger teacher, "Look who's popular with all the girls."

"I know. It's weird," Negi replied.

Gene nearly fell over at this comment. _Is this kid serious? Ah well, he'll have to give so much candy back to these girls on White Day that he'll most likely go broke from buying them_, he reassured himself, but he still felt jealousy towards Negi since he was so popular already at such a young age.

* * *

In the classroom, Nodoka and Yue were practicing their confessions to Negi before school was to begin. However, they still felt anxious about giving their gifts to Negi.

"Oh, it's hopeless," Nodoka finally said and moved to drop her gift into the trash can.

Yue grabbed her friend's wrist and held it back. "Don't do that, Nodoka," she advised, "You have to give Negi-sensei your gift today. It's your best chance to get his heart."

"But he's most likely gotten a bunch of gifts from other girls already," Nodoka said, trying to pull her wrist out of Yue's grip. "How would he notice my gift among everyone else's?"

Just then, Negi entered the classroom.

"Nodoka, now's your chance," Yue encouraged her friend, "It seems like he hasn't gotten any yet."

Nodoka nodded and began to walk towards Negi to give him her present.

However, as the child-teacher walked in, half of the girls in the class began crowding around him, trying to shove their gifts into his face. The class representative tried pushing everyone aside and unveiled her gift to her teacher.

It was a life-sized, chocolate bust of Negi's head. "Here is my gift to you, my dear Negi-sensei," she said and bowed down, holding out her gift to him. However, the other girls pushed her aside and crushed her gift under their feet.

After everyone was finished with giving their gifts, Negi was left with an armful of bags and boxes of chocolates. Nodoka, at first disheartened when the girls in the class had gone up to Negi to give him their gifts, was about to walk up to Negi to give her gift when-

Gene followed, hauling a cart full of Valentine's chocolates. After navigating the cart to the corner of the room, he left it there and panted. "Negi," he complained, "You should find a better way to store all of your Valentine's candy." He saw the large pile of chocolates in his colleague's arms and groaned. "You still have more to add to your pile?" he asked, amused.

"Yeah." Negi looked at the candies and wondered how he would be able to take them all back to his apartment; he then wondered how he would be able to eat all of them without getting sick.

Upon hearing this, Yue looked to her side, but Nodoka had already disappeared. After looking around the room, she saw Nodoka in her seat, trying to hide her gift under her desk.

_What do I do now? _Yue wondered. Although she liked Negi-sensei too, she still wanted to help her friend.

Gene took out the gift he got and looked at the label. It was from Konoka.

_Oh_, he thought, _That's really nice of her to give me something._

When Konoka came in, Gene went up to her.

"Thanks for the gift," he said, "Umm…Is it for…"

Konoka laughed, "Oh no, it's just to say 'Welcome to our dorm'."

Asuna slumped into the room. Konoka had succeeded in getting Asuna to come to class instead of going back to her dorm to mope. She dragged herself over to her desk and collapsed down.

"What happened to her?" Gene discreetly asked Konoka.

"Aww, the poor thing. She wanted to give some Valentine's chocolates to Takahata-sensei, but she found a bunch of gifts in his mailbox when she was about to put hers in."

Konoka's answer got Gene thinking. He remembered how Negi had explained how he and Takamichi shared the same mailbox, and the answer dawned on him.

He went over to Asuna and poked her head; all he got as a reply was a weak groan. Taking a different approach, he rang the bells tied onto her hair. However, this failed to get her attention as well.

Finally, he looked over at the doorway and said, "Good morning, Takahata-san."

Asuna's head snapped up, fully alert. However, when she looked at the doorway, there was no one there. She looked up and glared at Gene who was laughing hysterically at Asuna's sudden change.

Asuna stood to hit her teacher, when Gene raised his hands to calm her down. "I just wanted to get your attention. You wanted to give a Valentine's gift to Takamichi-san, right?"

"Yeah," Asuna uneasily replied, wary of another joke.

"Just to tell you, Takamichi-san and Negi share the same mailbox. Think about it. Even if you're Baka Red, you should still be able to figure it out."

Gene then walked away, leaving Asuna to decipher what he meant.

Meanwhile, Sayo had been listening to Gene's conversation with Konoka. Now, she felt as if she had a chance to have her gift accepted; she hadn't thrown away her chocolates as she had originally planned on doing.

As she floated to give her gift, she saw Priscilla march up to Gene and give him something. Sayo stopped in midair and floated away…again.

Gene examined the second gift he had gotten that day; he took out the other chocolates he had gotten from Konoka. He compared Konoka's gift, which was loosely wrapped up into a little bag, to Priscilla's, whose gift was neatly wrapped in a heart-shaped box. As he examined his two trophies, Priscilla was glaring at the other bag, sensing a potential rival.

"Who did you get that from?" she said in a dark voice.

"Oh this?" Gene held out the bag Konoka gave him. "Konoka-san gave it to me. She spent most of yesterday baking chocolates for a lot of her friends and teachers."

"Oh, so they're handmade, eh?" Because of her and Setsuna's inability to cook, they had been forced to buy their gifts.

"Yeah, but she said it was just as a welcoming gift for a dormmate."

"_Just_ a welcoming gift?"

"Why?" Gene asked, finally sensing an ominous, dark aura coming from Priscilla.

Priscilla just stood there, looking down at the ground; her arms and entire body were trembling in anger. She looked up, with hatred in her eyes, and got out a harisen. Gene tried to run out of the room but forgot that, in the way they were placed in the room, Priscilla was in the way of his escape route.

"_Karyuu no_…" she said and pulled her harisen back to add some extra force. It burst into flames, and she swung it forward with all of her strength.

"…_Harisen!_" she screamed out as she smacked Gene with her harisen, flames blazing. The impact caused an explosion which propelled Gene through the window and out of the classroom.

Chisame looked at the scene with her mouth gaping open and astonishment on her face. _So they are weirdoes too. What the hell has my life gone to?_ she thought.

Gene had landed in the courtyard in the middle of a smoldering crater. Miraculously (or not), he was still alive.

[Why did you just say 'Or not'?]

(Because as _you_ said, reality in fictional worlds is really screwed up compared to the real world, so technically, surviving an explosion shouldn't seem like something new to shounen manga-nerds.)

[True, true.]

Negi looked out to where Gene had landed.

"Is he alright?"

"He should be. If he's who he is, he should be able to take fifty more, no, a hundred more of those attacks and still survive." Priscilla answered.

No one had anything to say for that.

They looked at the broken windowsill and saw Gene climb back up into the classroom. Although there was still some residual smoke coming from his body, he seemed perfectly fine.

"God! Don't hit me so suddenly like that," he shouted at Priscilla.

"What? I gave you about two seconds to panic about it," she retorted. "Anyways, you deserved it."

As if remembering something he had forgotten moments ago, he began rummaging through his pockets, and pulled out the two gifts he had gotten so far. Both seemed perfectly fine.

Priscilla sighed in relief, realizing that her attack could have charred her gift.

After ruminating about what Gene had told her during the day, Asuna looked up, realizing something. She turned around to ask Chisame what was nagging her mind.

* * *

"Do you think Negi got a lot of chocolates this morning?" she asked Chisame.

Chisame nearly fell off her chair at Asuna's idiocy. She straightened herself and looked at the red-haired girl.

"Of course, he got a lot of gifts. You didn't see that pile of chocolates at the front of the room?"

_Oh god. She really is Baka Red_, Chisame thought, _Why hasn't she failed the class yet if she's this stupid?_

Asuna began thinking again. She then looked up again and asked Chisame another question.

"So…Then all those chocolates _weren't _for Takahata-sensei, right?"

Chisame nearly fell off her seat again. Asuna's level of idiocy even surprised her sometimes.

"Of course!" she shouted back. Asuna looked back and thought about what this new development meant.

(Damn. How slow can you get?)

[A 1960's computer trying to get onto the Internet using dial-up.]

(Ooh. Now, _that_ is slow.)

[I know.]

* * *

After school, Natsumi followed Kaede into the forest where Kotarou was training. While Kaede had the advantage of her ninja abilities, Natsumi had to struggle through the bushes and trees to follow.

When she came out of the bushes, she saw the faint figure of Kotarou greeting Kaede on top of a cliff. She looked at the sheer, cliff-wall she would have to climb to get all the way up there.

"Hau," she groaned and collapsed on her knees. The trip had exhausted her, and she didn't have the energy to go the rest of the way. "What am I going to do?"

"Beats me."

Hearing an unfamiliar voice, Natsumi wildly looked around, half-hoping she wasn't going crazy, but half-hoping that it was all in her head. It was the ghost of Ichiro who appeared right beside her.

He raised his hand in greeting. "Yo."

Natsumi's scream alerted Kotarou and Kaede of her location. They quickly jumped down to see if she was in trouble.

"Natsumi-neechan," Kotarou called out, "Are you alright?"

Kotarou and Kaede turned to the ghost. Kotarou bared his claws while Kaede drew out some kunai. Ichiro raised his hands in surrender.

"Hey, hey!" he cried out, trying to keep the peace.

"Oh, _there _you are." Gene randomly walked out of the forest and approached Ichiro. "I was wondering why you never came over."

(Is it just me, or is this episode getting more random as we go?)

Gene explained about Ichiro's ghost and that he would be staying at the school for the time being. After he finished, he looked down at his watch. "Wow, it's 6 already? Time to get back."

After Kotarou and Natsumi separated from the others to get to their room, Natsumi pushed Kotarou aside. Ignoring his cry of protest, she quickly pulled out her chocolates and held it out in front of him.

"Kotarou-kun, please accept my feelings," she quickly said, hoping that she wouldn't get a nervous breakdown in front of him.

Kotarou took his gift and looked at it; the bright-red wrapping was slightly wrinkled and worn out from Natsumi's trek. "Natsumi-neechan, is today Valentine's Day?"

In the middle of running away, Natsumi fell over in shock.

She immediately stood up and shook Kotarou by the shoulders. "Of course it is!" she shouted at him.

"Oh." Kotarou then opened the bag and ate a chocolate. He then smiled. "Thanks Natsumi-neechan."

However, she was already gone.

"I wonder where she went?" he asked before popping another chocolate in his mouth.

_

* * *

I'm here, now to give my gift to Negi-sensei_, Nodoka thought as she hid behind a tree near the staircase which led to the main school building. At the top of the stairs was Negi who had just left to go back home.

Nodoka looked at the bag of chocolates in her hands and tried to plan on the best way to confess to him.

Gene met Negi in front of the main building. As they walked back to the dorms, Nodoka was gathering up the courage to confess to Negi. When she peeked out to spy on Negi again, she saw Gene walk up to him and immediately hid herself again.

_It's now or never_, she thought, took a deep breath to calm down her beating heart, and walked towards him.

After seeing the gift Nodoka was hiding behind her back, Gene understood the situation (for once) and told Negi that he would go ahead.

After Gene had walked out of hearing distance, there was an awkward silence between Nodoka and Negi.

"Umm…Mizayaki-san," Negi said nervously, somewhat understanding why she was there. "Is there something you wanted to talk about with me?"

"Eh?" Nodoka looked up and blushed. "Umm…Here!"

She held out her gift in front of her; the chocolates were all in a circular box wrapped in purple and red swirls. "Please…accept my feelings, Negi-sensei."

Negi took it and asked her, "Nodoka-san, is this for…umm…you know…."

"Bye, sensei." Nodoka bowed quickly and ran away.

Meanwhile, Yue looked at the scene and observed Nodoka giving her gift to Negi.

_Even if I couldn't give him my present_, she thought and nestled her chocolates closer to her chest. _I'm happy that you could. Nodoka_.

When Negi entered the dorm building, Gene was waiting at the doorway. After noticing the child-teacher approaching, he grinned.

"So," he said and nudged Negi with his elbow, "How did it go?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on. I won't tell anyone; even if this is one of those illicit, student-teacher relationships."

Negi blushed, realizing that Gene was talking about Nodoka.

"Umm…I think it went well," was his reply. He still didn't know what type of present Nodoka had given him.

Realizing that Negi wouldn't reveal anything else, Gene relented and went up the stairs to their dorm room.

* * *

On the rooftop of the school building, Takahata was looking out at the rest of the campus, smoking a cigarette. Asuna opened the door to the rooftop and closed it behind her. However, as she saw the man she loved in the glare of the sunset, she lost her nerve and was about to open the door to go back inside.

"Asuna-kun. Do you have anything you want to talk about?"

Asuna froze and looked back. Takamichi had turned around and was facing her. She suddenly felt her face flush and become red.

"Umm…Takahata-sensei…"

"What?"

Asuna decided that she had nothing to lose and held out her gift. It was ornately wrapped in red gift-wrap with white speckles into a heart-shape.

"Please accept this," she practically cried out.

Takamichi took it and then looked up at Asuna.

He then smiled somewhat apologetically. "If it's to confess your feelings for me, my answer is the same as last year's. Sorry, Asuna."

Asuna then began waving her hands dismissively, trying to hold back her tears. "You know. It's just as thanks for taking care of me for so long. You know."

She then began running away before she collapsed from her emotions. Takamichi looked at Asuna's gift and opened it. He took a bite out of one piece.

"It tastes alright."

* * *

About two hours earlier, Konoka was in her room, cooking dinner. Asuna was out for a Baka Rangers study session, and for Gene and Negi, well, they were busy as you all saw, leaving Konoka the only person in the room.

There was a knock on the door, and Konoka skipped over and opened it. It was Setsuna. Setsuna shuffled and nervously looked to the floor.

Konoka's face brightened up. "Ah. Set-chan, how are you?"

"Fine, Ojou-sama," she replied.

Konoka then flicked Setsuna's forehead. "What did I tell you, Set-chan? You have to call me 'Kono-chan'."

"Alright. Umm… K-k-kono-chan," she stammered out.

Konoka beamed and hugged Setsuna. "Thank you, Set-chan."

Setsuna blushed and couldn't say because Konoka was so close to her.

After Konoka let go, Setsuna quickly took out her Valentine's gift to Konoka. It was wrapped in the same way as Priscilla's gift was, since they bought their gifts at the same shop. "Please accept this," she said.

Konoka took it and smiled. "Wait here," she said before entering the kitchen.

When she came out, she had some chocolates wrapped in the remaining gift-wrap Asuna had used. She held it out to Setsuna. "Here you go too, Set-chan."

Setsuna took Konoka's gift and held it as if handling some holy object. She then blushed and ran away.

"I wonder why Set-chan left so quickly. I was about to ask her to stay over for dinner."

* * *

Three hours after the previous episode, Gene was standing on top of the dorm room, looking at the stars. The ghost of Ichiro was sitting down next to him and was gazing upwards as well.

"The stars have changed a lot in the last few centuries, hasn't it," Gene mentioned.

"Aye, but I can still see some remnants of the past sky. Sadly, many stars which I familiarized myself with have disappeared."

"Do you hate mankind for doing this?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I just want to see something familiar again."

"This conversation seems to have little to do with adding to the plo- eeeeh~"

[Damnit. He's onto us.]

"Umm…Am I disturbing something?" Sayo floated from the rooftop. After talking with herself and Kazumi for the day, she finally convinced herself that she would give her present to Gene.

"Oh, nothing." Ichiro stood up and turned to face Gene. "It was nice talking to you. I'll see you around." He jumped off the roof and floated away.

"Hello Sayo. Did you want to talk about something?" Gene asked her.

Sayo floated up to him and held out her gift, wrapped in red and blue. "Please accept my feelings," she shouted, albeit too loudly.

Gene uncovered his ears. "No need to shout about it."

"Sorry. I'm so sorry." Sayo began to bow in apology.

"It's alright." He took Sayo's gift from her hands. "Thank you for your gift."

Although she had delivered her gift, Sayo still hesitated to leave. After wavering for a while, she suddenly turned around and put her lips against Gene's. For a split second, they touched, but Sayo passed through instantly. She stepped back and blushed at her boldness.

Gene looked back at her in astonishment and remarked, "If you wanted one of those Pactios, you need Chamo-kun to make a circle."

Sayo looked back blankly and then realized what he had meant. She became red and began beating her fists against his body. "Don't be so mean!" she complained.

Gene laughed and closed his eyes. Sayo's hands went through him, and she tripped through him. He looked back at her, grabbed her hand to catch her fall, and smiled.

"I can control my own interaction with ghosts," he teased.

Sayo kicked him in the face. "Don't be so mean!" she repeated as he nearly rolled off the roof.

Gene stood back up, clutching his nose. "Damnit, that hurt! I was just joking about Chamo, you know."

Sayo's face calmed down, and she began laughing. Gene went dizzy and fell towards her. They landed with Gene on top of her. Their heads banged and their lips met for the second time.

(Why did you use that gun again? That's two uses in one chapter.)

[For the comedy/romance moment, why else?]

(…You have a twisted sense of humor.)

Gene stood up immediately. "Sorry, I didn't mean that," he apologized. "I guess I didn't realize how tired I was."

Sayo got up and blushed even harder upon realizing what had happened. "See you later," she quickly said and floated away."

Gene watched her fly away and yawned. He decided that since it was getting late, and there was school tomorrow, he should get some sleep. After all, this had been quite a momentous day.

* * *

As he walked down to his dorm room, Ichiro appeared beside him. Oddly, the ghost was smiling.

"It's rude to eavesdrop on such conversations," Gene said without looking at Ichiro.

"What? Do you expect me to say something like 'People who get love chocolates on Valentine's Day should die!'?"

"You know what I'm talking about. What did you find?"

"Nothing yet. I looked over about 90% of the school's underground and still had enough time to see that little 'accident' with that lady-ghost over there," Ichiro teased.

"Oh, shut up! Like you got anything today." Gene snapped back.

"Of course I got something today."

"What?"

"A nice laugh at your situation."

"Ah well, today was a good day for me," Gene said and stretched as they stood outside of the dorm room.

"Why? You didn't get as many chocolates as that young boy."

"Well, for a nerd like me, getting three gifts and two kisses in one day is like a miracle."

* * *

(And so, Valentine's Day ends. Not bad actually, everyone got to deliver their gifts.)

[True, so true.]

(Too bad Sayo's a ghost though. That would have made that last scene a bit more interesting, no?)

[Well, hopefully, this wasn't too much of a filler chapter. See you next time.]

(…What about Chachamaru's gift?)

[Oh, she was one of the students who put it in Negi's mailbox. She was the first one to do that actually.]

(Why do I have the somewhat faint feeling that you purposely skipped Chachamaru's confession out of laziness and to save space.)

[Those accusations are somewhat founded and might be true, but totally uncalled for!]


End file.
